If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Hi Unregistered,
We'll be undergoing major forum changes in the very near future. Be sure to check out the details here

Doppelganger

Finally time to get my new fanfic going. ^^ Alright, my history of fics here on these forums so far has only consisted of Pokemon War, so this'll be the second one.

Doppelganger is rated PG, and it's primarily an adventure story. It's generally about a boy learning to be psychic while traveling through the region with his friends. His ultimate goal is to defeat a great villain, so this is more or less a hero story, good vs. bad. It'll be interesting, though, what with all the psychic elements I'm throwing in.

Oh, I didn't create Pokemon, I only created this story. As of now, I don't plan on creating new Pokemon for the story. I don't condone believing in psychics, either. Just leave that stuff to the storybooks. XD

And lastly, I usually update on Saturdays. Not necessarily every Saturday, I could miss some, but I'll rarely post a new chapter on a day other than Saturday (such as I'm doing now, on Sunday).

Okay, so here's the prologue:

Doppelganger
Prologue“The Greatest Psychic”

Once upon a time, there lived a rather peaceful village known as Telakon. The people of this village lived together with Pokémon, and many trained them, also, as many others in this world did. Telakon was a secret village, but if the world had knowledge of it, it would have mostly been known for being a race of psychics. The people grew up with psychic powers, inherited through generations that went back many years.

One trainer, named Siksensus, became great. He was a psychic like everyone else of his village, but he rose above the others. That is, him and his best friend, Para. They became so powerful that they became known throughout the village as two of the greatest psychics ever known.

Siksensus and Para enjoyed getting stronger together, and they became a common subject of talk for the village. However, while the two of them had grown up together as best friends, they had two completely opposite methods of training, and two completely opposite views of how to use their power.

Para boasted a lot about his power, and while he did enjoy using it to stop villains, he was almost as low and merciless as they were. Any rival, friend or foe, Para was adamant to defeat. This started out as a good thing-simple determination-but it grew into a stubborn superiority complex, and Para eventually couldn’t stand the thought of anyone being anywhere close to his power, aside from his best friend Siksensus. He had become greedy, selfish, and worst of all, careless about how he used his power.

Siksensus, on the other hand, had respect for any and all other rivals. He fought them with a zeal for psychic battling, and the tougher a fight, the more he enjoyed it. In fact, about the only thing he couldn’t stand was crime. He was a natural-born hero, very strictly opposed to any sort of evil.

Eventually, Siksensus became so powerful, much greater than Para even, that Telakon recognized him as a ‘Pokémon Master’. As far as Telakon was concerned, he was the greatest psychic that ever lived. Sadly, however, instead of being proud and congratulating of his friend, Para became jealous and resentful. All their life they had been competing with each other; granted, it was friendly competition, but competition nonetheless. Before he started his special psychic training with Siksensus, Para had had a terrible life, and this had caused a permanent sense of bitterness and feeling of unfairness to become lodged deep in his heart. All this anger inside him was quiet, just waiting for a hole to seep through and grow…

Seeing Siksensus become stronger than himself created an extreme envy, which grew and grew, until finally, Para became fed up of not being able to match up with his old best friend. He could not hold it inside any longer.

Para finally decided that the best thing for him to do was to leave the village forever, for he could no longer live under his best friend’s shadow. But the day he had decided to leave, he came across a power that would supposedly make him stronger. He fell for its trick in his jealousy of his best friend, and this caused a great evil to poison his mind…

One thing led to another, and one day, with his great psychic powers, Para’s now contaminated mind made the decision to conjure up a powerful evil to destroy Siksensus. It was the same darkness that entered into one’s mind-in this case Para’s-and gave them the sole desire to destroy. And eventually, the victim of this darkness would cease to exist, as the evil would ultimately devour the poor soul whole. Telakon witnessed this evil, which Para was using around the town, and considered the darkness committing these acts to be a Pokémon, and it was named “Evlimon” by the village.

Unfortunately, this “Evlimon” was a very powerful force, and it was too strong for Para to control. Para had been holding back the dark desire to attack Siksensus, but it had grown so unbearable that the Evlimon eventually took over its very own master, mutating both Para’s body and Para’s now corrupted mind to create the greatest evil the world had ever seen: Black Dragon.

There was only one man who could stop this new evil known as Black Dragon. This was Siksensus, the master psychic and Pokémon Master. Of course, having to annihilate your best friend isn’t an easy task, and that was on top of the great effort needed to bring Black Dragon down…

Hundreds of years later, Telakon told of Siksensus’ story, and how he was able to take down Black Dragon. They knew little specifics at this point, for it had already been a fuzzy story when they first witnessed it, and centuries later it was even harder to understand-or even believe. But the fact was it WAS believed, and the village of Telakon knew for a fact that Siksensus was not able to destroy the evil of the Evlimon completely, but only the vessel it controlled to wreak havoc at the time: Black Dragon.

The Evlimon had seeped into Para’s son, and while Siksensus was able to banish the evil from one’s mind, he couldn’t expel it from one’s mind once it had started a dormant sleep, as it had done with Para’s son. And of course, Telakon wasn’t willing to let Siksensus destroy its whole clan just to make sure they destroyed the evil, and Siksensus himself couldn’t let himself do such a thing. Besides, Siksensus was sure they were the only ones who could stop the Evlimon if it were to come back by some other means. So Siksensus decided to create a foolproof plan just in case it did that.

Thus, the Mirror Heart was invented. This was a special object that would be used to bring a psychic warrior to the right terms of power in order to defeat Black Dragon when he returned again. Telakon didn’t understand completely how Siksensus said it would work, but they trusted him completely, and therefore agreed to do whatever he told them concerning the Mirror Heart.

Now, hundreds of years later, the return of the threat of Black Dragon proved to be true. A new evil rose and took on that name, and it was time to fight back against his tyranny. Through the power of the Mirror Heart, the warrior that Siksensus had named “Doppelganger” was soon to be born…
__________

Dang, you've done a nice job of setting up the story here. I'm already interested to see what'll happen next in the setting you chose for this, one which is very cool. Psychics = Yum. ^^ The grammar seems to be in good order, and things are fleshed out, and the names of places and characters - those are neat - I can't believe that it took me a few to figure out the origins of names like "Telakon" and "Siksensus". Clever work there. ^^

Only spotted two errors, but they're minor:

Para boasted a lot about his power, and while he did enjoy using it to stop villains, he was almost as low as merciless as they were.

Wow, this seems interesting. I like how you set up the story and am curious as to how you wish to develop it. The names seem strange but there must be a meaning to them. This looks to be great and I hope it does turn out great. Keep writing!

Dang, you've done a nice job of setting up the story here. I'm already interested to see what'll happen next in the setting you chose for this, one which is very cool. Psychics = Yum. ^^ The grammar seems to be in good order, and things are fleshed out, and the names of places and characters - those are neat - I can't believe that it took me a few to figure out the origins of names like "Telakon" and "Siksensus". Clever work there. ^^

Thanks. I try to make the names clever (even though they sometimes seem to make no sense at all XD).

Originally Posted by Sike Saner

Only spotted two errors, but they're minor:

Originally Posted by Sike Saner

The "as" need to become "and".

Originally Posted by Sike Saner

The "been" can go; it's not needed there.

Thanks, I'll correct it immediately.

Originally Posted by Sike Saner

I'd certainly be glad to read more of this. ^^ See you next time!

Alright, I hope I keep you interested. ^^

Originally Posted by Lord_sNap

Wow, this seems interesting. I like how you set up the story and am curious as to how you wish to develop it. The names seem strange but there must be a meaning to them. This looks to be great and I hope it does turn out great. Keep writing!

Alright, yeah. And the names, yeah, sometimes they may seem random and weird, but at least keep in mind they'll always have SOME sort of meaning, heh.

Okay, so here's the first official chapter. At this point I think all my chapters will be about ten pages long, maybe a bit longer. So now, enjoy.

Doppelganger
Chapter 1“The Birth of Doppelganger”

The wide plains of Machop Town shined green as the moonlight of the night lit the grass. The town was very beautiful at night; the homes were few and far between, and the place had a nice cool breeze that made the place all the more relaxing to travel through.

This very night, a girl wandered around the outskirts of town. It seemed to be impossible to get inside, for the city gate guards refused to let a complete stranger like her with no business there to enter. The rest of the border of Machop town was filled with-well, Machop. The tough little Pokémon waved their buff arms around threateningly every time the girl tried to walk through their territory, which was all around the town, unfortunately.

“This calls for some help,” whispered the girl to herself. In her hand she held a Pokéball, the half red, half white sphere that was used to contain a Pokémon. When Pokémon get in the way, the best way to fight them is to use your own Pokémon, and that’s what the girl planned to do. She had to get in Machop town and fulfill the first part of her mission in order to begin the journey.

Suddenly, there was a bright, white, burst of light, and a Pokémon formed in front of the young girl…

* * * * *

The next morning, Eric, a young boy, sat in the kitchen of his house, eating his favorite cereal, Cocoa Jigglypuff. He stroked a hand through his messy purple hair as he swallowed a spoonful of food. The golden light of the rising sun filled the kitchen with its glow, and as always, it gave a feeling of hope and optimism that was needed everyday. But today of all days, Eric would probably need all the happiness he could possibly get.

Today, Eric was feeling pretty miserable. In fact, eating his favorite cereal was the only thing that kept him from being in a bad mood. As Eric shoved another spoonful of the small, chocolate puffs that were shaped into Jigglypuff in his mouth, he sighed.

Today was Eric’s birthday, and he had just turned twelve years old. He expected to have a family-only birthday party, since he wasn’t exactly plentiful in friends. But his father, Professor Polymer, was a very busy man. He could almost always be found in his laboratory, with his lab partner Professor Shrink, studying Pokémon’s evolution habits. They got a great deal of research done every month, and they made a bundle of money, but the job kept them in the lab most of the time.

Even Eric’s mother, although less than his father, was also often at work. Because of all this, Eric often stayed at home by himself. Well, not exactly. He had neighbors, who he could sometimes hang out with. However, one of them was a girl, which limited the fun Eric was able to have with her. The girl had an older brother, but he was too old-at too mature an age-to play around with him much. Eric’s father owned a Snorlax, but it lazily ate and slept around the house constantly, and it was rarely able to keep Eric much company. Although, it helpfully woke up any time danger seemed to be near, so at least Eric was always safe.

Eric flipped through the channels on TV after he finished breakfast. His legs were lazily propped up on the table, and his arm was stretched in the air, holding the remote control. His father had gone out for a meeting of local professors, and his mother was out conducting an interview, as she frequently did regarding her occupation. They had promised to return for the family birthday party in the afternoon, but it was still sad that they couldn’t be around now. Of course, Snorlax was still around, wearing its party hat early. It was the only family around at the moment.

Eric finally decided to stay on a station showing a program about taking care of grass Pokémon in a garden. It was a program he was familiar with, but not too interested in. The garden was quite large, and it was apparently filled with grass Pokémon. The hostess of the show was a real green thumb, and Eric often found his mother fascinated by the tips she gave. Eric couldn’t figure out what in the world concerning gardening could be THAT fascinating, although he did admit the young lady that hosted the show was a bit appealing, if that counted for anything.

Eric yawned as he watched the green-haired lady pulling a hose over to a certain patch of planted Pokémon. The lady-whose name Eric couldn’t remember-wore dirty, blue overalls over a brown shirt, which was also dirty. She had thick, black boots on, which stepped carefully over the brown dirt of the garden. She had bright, blue eyes, and her green hair-which was quite shiny when compared to the state of her clothes-was tied in a bun so as not to get messed up, Eric guessed.

As the lady began watering the Pokémon in the ground, she said softly, yet knowledgably, “Take care when watering your Oddish; remember, they hate the careless showering many of their caretakers tend to give them. A slow sprinkle, over the course of thirty seconds or so, should do it. Also, remember not to…”

The program wasn’t Eric’s style, but he wasn’t exactly in the mood to watch one of his favorite cartoons or something, so he continued to stare at the screen, half asleep. As he watched the lady continue to water other grass Pokémon, Eric began to doze off.

Eric had long, messy, purple hair, which came down to his shoulders and bushed up at the bottom, and his bangs covered his forehead. His eyes were a dark shade of blue. Right now, as he slept on the couch, he wore his blue pajamas, which were completely plain, aside from the face of a Snorlax on the front of his shirt. He was now sprawled across the couch, and it was obvious to anyone who saw him that he had been watching TV before he fell asleep.

The scene changed. Eric’s family, his father, mother, godfather, Snorlax, and himself, were all singing around a table. They all wore the party hat Snorlax had been wearing, and there was a birthday cake on the table. As they sang, Eric found himself feeling a great joy.

Eric stared back at him, puzzled. “What do you mean?” All of a sudden, Eric awoke. The birthday party with his whole family had been a dream. Just like it had been all morning long. An unachievable dream.

“Eric, you must have been tired,” said his father, who had woken him up.

“More like bored,” said Eric, who was wishing the dream had at least been a little longer. After seeing his father’s confused face, Eric managed to smile back at him. John Polymer, Eric’s father, had purple hair like his son, but it was short and spiked up a little messily. He was wearing a vertically lined, white shirt, with a necktie and black pants. He had been wearing a whole suit, but he had thrown his jacket on the couch.

“I’m back for your birthday, son,” said John. After hearing this, Eric smiled more genuinely, and he jumped to his feet. A quick glance at the clock told him it wasn’t even noon yet, so he had come early.

“Why are you back so soon?” asked Eric.

John roughed up his son’s hair and said, “The guys in our meeting decided to cut it off short and continue it next week. And of course, I agreed.”

Eric was overjoyed. He jumped onto Snorlax’ back and let it carry him outside. All that was missing now was his mother and godfather. When he got to the door, Eric jumped off of Snorlax and walked outside for a breath of fresh air.

When he walked out, he took a look around. Eric lived in Machop Town, which was obviously named after the rough, wild Machop that lived and trained on the outskirts of the town. No one could leave or enter the place because of the Machop, who weren’t exactly good sports about people moving through their territory. But there was one way of entering and exiting the town that wasn’t dangerous: the town gates. Of course, without a Machop Town ID, there was a pretty high fee there, so that also wasn’t always a good option.

The town was filled with grass, and there were some trees or a house every here and there. As Eric sat on his porch, watching the clouds drift by, he thought about how it could have been if he were a cloud, going anywhere the wind drifted. And when he became heavy with trouble around, he’d rain special techniques on his foes.

Eric had always wanted to be a Pokémon trainer. In fact, he wanted to be a Pokémon Master someday. But he couldn’t. Sure, when he was ten, his parents were somewhat rich, just as they were now, so they were perfectly capable of giving him anything he needed to start a journey. But Eric had felt neither the courage, nor the ability to do well. He always felt like he just wasn’t cut out for training. The main source of such a lack of self-confidence originated from an unfortunate incident long ago, which he refused to think about, just as he refused to ever think about Pokémon training again.

“Eric, what are you doing out on the porch?” said a familiar voice. Eric pulled his gaze down from the sky and saw his mother standing before him, wearing a purple sweater and a black skirt. She had black hair, unlike Eric, but it was in roughly the same shape as his hair. It went down to her shoulders, and it was bushy at the bottom. But she didn’t have bangs, and she had a tuft of hair coming down in front of each of her ears.

Clair Polymer adjusted the small glasses in front of her eyes as she stared down at her son. Eric was getting happy again, now that his mother arrived for the birthday party early. Clair pulled her son up and gave him a hug, and then they walked inside.

* * * * *

A large, rectangular cake stood on a flat pedestal on the table of the kitchen. Eric, John, Clair, and Lax, the Snorlax, stood around the table. Eric felt like this was one of the greatest birthdays he had ever had. He stared at the pile of birthday gifts in the corner of the kitchen, and then back at the birthday cake that read: Happy Birthday Eric!

Suddenly, someone else came in the house. It was a man with navy blue hair that spiked down behind his neck, and he was wearing a suit, like John had been wearing. He was Fred Shrink, a professor who not only worked with John Polymer on many an occasion, but also grew up with him as best friends. He was such an important person to the Polymer family that he had become Eric’s godfather.

“Hey, Freddy!” called John from his spot around the table.

“Hey, Johnny,” said Fred, with a smile. As he put his coat away, he said, “Sorry I’m here so late, guys. Eric, as I told your father, I had to go run home and get ready before I came here, so that’s why I didn’t come right after the meeting like John did.”

“No problem!” said Eric, “I’m just glad you’re here!”

Fred proceeded to put his present in the pile. He seemed to have two presents, however, as he put a second one in the pile.

“Wow, Fred,” said Clair, “You got Eric two presents? Trying to make us look bad?” She smiled at him, and Fred smiled back.

“Sorry,” said Fred, “As much as I’d like to take credit for that second box, I have to admit it’s not mine. I just brought it in from the porch. You or Johnny must have dropped it.”

Eric looked at his parents. Both of them were baffled, as if they hadn’t dropped the present. And it couldn’t be Lax, because it had dropped its present in the pile right in front of Eric’s eyes.

Within a matter of seconds, the whole gang was behind the cake, taking pictures. Then they all sang in unison, “Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you…” Eric smiled. He hadn’t had a joy-filled day this outstanding since before his tenth birthday. “…Happy Birthday, dear Eric! Happy Birthday to you!! Snorlax!” They all laughed at Snorlax’s sudden cheer, and then gave a cheer themselves.

Fred roughed up Eric’s purple hair and looked down at him, saying, “Happy Birthday, Eric.” Eric smiled back. Everyone sat down to eat the cake, and before long, the whole thing was finished, leaving only small areas of icing.

“How about you go see what you got, son?” offered John, as he held his full belly in his hands. Everyone took their present into the living room and threw them onto the floor, where a carpet with a Snorlax picture was. Snorlax sat down along with Eric on the floor, Fred sat on the couch behind Eric, and Eric’s parents stood up.

Eric grabbed a present. It was a soft, rather flat package, and he promptly tore it up. Inside, he saw a beanie. It was mostly black, but in the middle there was a thick purple circle, which was broken on the sides, and in the empty middle there was a smaller purple circle, which was completely filled in. It was a Pokémon beanie. Along with it was a matching backpack. It was black, with the same purple Pokéball symbol.

“Wow, nice,” said Eric, as he put all of the stuff on, “Who’s present was this?”

“Mine, son,” said Clair, “Thought you might like a backpack to take around the town with you. And maybe something to wear over that messy hair.” Clair smiled, and Eric smiled back.

Eventually, Eric got his other presents opened. He got a bike from his father, which he planned on riding around Machop Town. From his godfather he received a necklace, which was made of many small, flat, golden pokeballs that connected together. And finally, he got a sleeping bag, which was typically given to him from Lax. He could use that last one for camping, if he ever got around to it.

“Thanks, you all,” said Eric, “These are all great. And thanks for coming!”

Eric’s family, his parents, godfather, and Snorlax, all smiled in happiness as they watched Eric look at all his new stuff.

Suddenly, Eric noticed something. There was one present left. “Strange,” he said, “I guess I didn’t notice this one. It was out of my eyesight in a weird way…”

Eric grabbed a box, which was wrapped in a pink wrapping paper with dark purple eyes all over it. It looked very eccentric, Eric thought, as he dizzied himself by looking at all the eyes. This was the gift that Fred had taken in from the porch. But who’s gift was it? Almost as if Eric had asked the question out loud, he saw each of his family members shake their head. Except Snorlax, that is, who simply shrugged and began eating some leftover cake he had brought with him.

So Eric finally began to unwrap the package. After he did so, there was a straightforward, brown box left, which was a little flat. He took the cover off of it, and inside were two objects. One was a normal Pokéball, red top and white bottom, and the other was a mirror. It was strange, though. It seemed like an ordinary mirror; a gray, metal mirror. It had a handle, and a circular glass. The only thing different about it was that it had strange colors flowing in the glass part, like the aurora borealis.

“Um, cool… I guess,” said Eric, not knowing what to do with this present. So he put the mirror down and grabbed the Pokéball. Was there a Pokémon in it? Eric had decided not to become a trainer a couple years back, so why would he want a Pokémon now? Well, he thought, he might as well open it…

Eric opened the sphere, and a bright, white light blasted out of it. It came down to the ground and formed itself into a Pokémon by taking its shape, and then gradually ceasing to glow white. The Pokémon was short and white. It had a dress-like, white part of its body that came down to the ground, and a green, helmet-like structure covered a lot of its head, and its eyes. Two red, semicircular horns jutted out of its green helmet, from the front and back.

“Ralts,” said the Pokémon with a soft, high-pitched voice, as it stood staring at the picture of a Snorlax in the carpet. Suddenly, before Eric could say something to attract its attention, Ralts’ red horns began glowing, and Ralts looked at Eric. It stared at him for a few seconds, as its horns continued to glow, before it finally seemed to lose interest in Eric and walk into the kitchen.

“Uh…” said Eric, as he flicked his fingers through his hair, “What was that about…” He stood up.

“Who could have gotten you that Pokémon?” wondered John.

“It’s a Ralts, I know that,” said Clair, suddenly. “A psychic Pokémon. I’ve seen them every now and then during my studies. When its horns were glowing, Eric, I think it was evaluating whether it should trust you or not.”

Eric looked back at his mom. “So, why did it leave? Does it not like me…” Eric ran into the kitchen, where he found Ralts standing on a chair, grabbing some icing that was still left where the cake once stood. Ralts, quickly eating the remnants of the cake, seemed to like the sweetness of it.

“Ralts!” exclaimed Ralts, in joy.

“Hey,” said Eric, “Are you hungry?” Ralts noticed Eric standing there and moved to a chair on the other side of the table, but it continued to finish the icing by licking the rest. When it was done, it went back into the living room and found a place on the carpet between the couch and Lax, where Eric had been sitting, and began sleeping.

Eric followed Ralts into the living room. He sighed and said, “Well, I don’t know who gave me it, and what I’ll do with it, but thanks for the Ralts.”

* * * * *

In the evening, Eric laid in his bed, staring at the dark, night sky through his window. He hadn’t thought of it before, but all the presents he received practically shouted, “Go on a Pokémon journey!!” But he couldn’t. He just didn’t have what it took to be a good Pokémon trainer. Besides, he’d probably just get lost anyway.

Eric looked at Ralts’ Pokéball, which stood on a desk next to Eric’s bed. Who could have given him such a present? And what was the mirror for? Eric grabbed the mirror and pulled it up above his face as he stared at it. His reflection looked back at him, with the long purple hair, the dark blue eyes, and the sad, yet wishful face.

“I wish I could be a great Pokémon Master,” said Eric, to the reflection in his mirror, and obviously, the reflection mouthed the same exact words back at Eric. He continued, “I wish I could be one of the greatest trainers around, and do something great. Like save the world…”

Suddenly, Eric began feeling strange. It was like a cold sensation, tingling through his body with a feeling of power. But it frightened Eric, and as he tried to put the mirror back down, he found, to his dismay, that he could not move it at all.

Eric stared at the reflection in the mirror, which he couldn’t stare away from. At first, the reflection showed his terrified face, but it suddenly began to change. The reflection showed Eric, but in a different light. It showed Eric look more tough and powerful, as lightning began surrounding the mirror.

Just when things couldn’t get any stranger, the reflection began talking on its own, saying to Eric, “Mirror, mirror, in your hand. It shows your reflection, from a boy to a man. You’ll travel the land, from coast to coast. Fighting all kinds of evil, with my power to boast. The blessing and curse, as you will soon see, is me, your powerful ghost!”

Eric, feeling a bit silly as well as frightened, replied to the mirror, “What are you talking about? Aren’t you just my reflection? Who are you?!”

The reflection laughed for a few seconds, and after it calmed down, it said back to Eric, “I am your tough side! I am your anger! Pokémon Master Doppelganger!!!”

Eric gasped, and as his reflection laughed and laughed, he felt the tingle around his body flow faster and faster…

* * * * *

Suddenly, Eric awoke. He looked around, and saw that it was morning. Sunlight filtered through the window and lit up Eric’s room. All Eric could think about, however, was the scene that had occurred the past night. He looked at the mirror, which was placed on his desk. Eric picked it up, and to his relief, the reflection was normal. Eric smiled, and the reflection smiled back.

Eric rushed down the stairs, which lead to the living room downstairs. He had decided to brush off the strange incident from last night as a nightmare. He ran into the kitchen and took his seat around the table.

Fred had slept over the night, as he wanted to spend the day before with Eric. And today, he was going to stay until the afternoon. Everyone was eating bacon and eggs for breakfast, and they had a good time.

“You guys, I had this strange nightmare last night,” said Eric, “I don’t know why I’m not bothered about having a nightmare the night of my birthday, though. Anyway, it had something to do with that mirror I got yesterday.”

“Really?” asked Clair, as she sat down to eat after serving the food she had made, “You know, we were worried about you. You had been yelling last night.”

Eric stared back at his mom. Yelling? It must have been about the mirror from the nightmare. But boy, he didn’t realize he had been yelling through the nightmare.

“We didn’t understand… what you were… saying,” said John, as he fought for a piece of bacon Lax was trying to steal from him. Lax had finished its food in a couple bites, and it was too impatient to wait for a second serving. After Lax finally won the struggle and threw the bacon up into the air and let it fall into its mouth, John said, “But whatever you were talking about, you were pretty shaken up about it.”

Eric nodded, but didn’t reply back. Something deep inside him told Eric that the nightmare had been more than just a bizarre dream…

* * * * *

After breakfast, Eric had decided to put on a pair of raggedy jeans and a large, white t-shirt and try out his new bike. He already knew his beanie, backpack, and necklace worked well. And he had no need for the sleeping bag yet. He brought his mirror and Pokéball with him, however, in the case that he might find a use for the two things.

The cool, morning wind blew through Eric as he rode his bike down the lonely, dirt road, which was surrounded by grass and some trees. Sometimes he passed a house, too. Every now and then, he saw a Machop lying on a rock or running after another Machop or doing something. Machop were small, gray, human-shaped Pokémon with three, hard, flat structures sticking out of the top of their head.

There were a couple Machop that had been sparring around a tree. The two of them stopped to watch Eric pass them, and Eric waved. Machop, which were fighting Pokémon, were always quite physically fit, as they spent much of their lives training.

There was a part of Machop town that had many more buildings than usual. It was kind of like a downtown, except it was for a small town. This place had shops to buy things, and the mayor’s building. Of course, people like Eric’s parents had to go into a large city that’s close to Machop Town, known as Big City, to work. In fact, Eric’s godfather actually lived there.

As Eric rode his bike, he wondered where to go. He didn’t have very good friends, really. They were too much like acquaintances that he rarely talked to, rather than friends. Eric used to spend most of his day playing with his mother, father, godfather, or Lax; whichever one was currently available to play with. And as he grew older, he began walking around the town, watching Pokémon. He learned quite a lot about Machop, since they were the vast majority in the Pokémon population around the town.

But now, after that strange incident that may have been a nightmare, he got to thinking. His reflection, peculiar as it was, had told him that he was a Pokémon Master. The reflection was, that is. But then again, the reflection WAS him, so wouldn’t that make HIM a Pokémon Master? Well, either way, Eric’s long-since disappeared desire to become a great, accomplished Pokémon trainer was beginning to rekindle.

Eric began to smile. Things were looking up. The red bike with thick, black tires and black handles shone in the sun, and Eric’s mood shone accordingly. Just as Eric was beginning to feel lucky for the first time since the day before, he suddenly watched, right before his very eyes, an unfortunate spectacle. A round, green bird with small, red wings and a red feather sticking up from its head swooped down and perched onto the bike basket, and it stared up at Eric.

“Natu,” it chirped, and then it took a look in the basket. In it was Ralts’ Pokéball and the mirror Eric had received as a present the day before. The small bird grabbed the mirror in its beak and quickly flew off.

“Hey, that’s mine!” Eric yelled after it. Sure, Eric hadn’t really known or cared what to do with the mirror, but somehow, he felt he had to get it back. So Eric steered the bike off of the beaten path and onto the grass at top speed, following the Pokémon thief. As the bike sped along the grass, Eric’s purple hair flowed in the air. He was going very fast, and he worried he might crash into something.

Soon, the little bird arrived at a cluster of trees, and it perched on a branch. Eric had a hard time stopping his bike, so when he suddenly did, he was flung into the air. He couldn’t help but crash straight into the tree Natu was perched on. Natu’s small voice vibrated along with its body, along with the tree, which was shaken by the crash.

“Ouch,” said Eric, after he fell onto the ground. The Pokéball that had been in the bike basket had fallen out, so Eric grabbed it as he rubbed his bruised head in temporary agony. After he shortly recovered, he looked up at Natu. Natu stared back down at Eric, and it dropped the mirror. “Whoa!” said Eric, as he covered his head with his arms. His eyes were closed, so when he heard the mirror hit something, he wondered why it hadn’t hit him.

Eric pulled his arms off of his head and looked up. To his surprise, a young girl stood before him. She seemed to be around his age. She had shiny, pink hair that normally came down to the middle of her back, but was now pulled to her side by the wind. The hair was tied with a large, white ribbon, which also shook in the wind. She had some sort of a tribal marking-at least that’s what Eric thought it was; it was a purple circle above her eyes, on her forehead. She was smiling down at Eric, as she held the mirror in her hand.

The girl was wearing a large, purple jacket, which had no zipper or buttons. It had a black Pokéball symbol on the front. It was rather large, too, but fit her nicely. She also wore a matching pair of purple pants which, as opposed to her jacket, seemed a bit small and didn’t cover her ankles. The small pants also fit her nicely, though.

But the strangest thing about her wardrobe wasn’t just her clothes. It was a necklace she had around her neck. It was nothing but a warn out rope, except at the bottom of it, the ends of the rope went straight into a small sphere, which was about an inch or two-long in diameter. The sphere looked like it was made of glass, and it was colorful in the same way the ‘magic’ mirror was.

“Um, thanks for catching that,” said Eric, as he pulled himself up. As he stood up, he could see that he was a few inches taller than the girl who stood before him. “That bird up there gave me a rough time.” But as Eric reached for the mirror, the girl pulled it away from him. She giggled a bit, but tried to hold the laughing back. Eric pulled his hand back and wondered what to do.

“You looked a little too frantic trying to get this mirror back,” said the girl, “Well, at least I know you received it.” She looked into the mirror, “That means things are going well, so far.”

Eric stared at the mirror, then back at the girl. He had no idea what she was talking about, of course. “Um…” he said, hesitantly, “If you really want that thing, you can have it. I don’t-”

“So, you did look into the mirror, right?” the girl interrupted. She was suddenly all up in Eric’s face, with a deep curiosity for an answer to her question. She waited, almost impatiently, for Eric to respond.

“Uh…” said Eric, “Yeah, sure.” He was at a loss for words. What was going on?

“And something strange happened, right?” asked the girl.

Now, Eric was beginning to wonder. Something strange definitely did happen. But how would she know? How did she know the mirror wasn’t an ordinary mirror?

“I had a weird nightmare about the mirror,” said Eric, as he looked at the sky innocently, “But it was nothing, really.”

The girl looked suspiciously back at Eric, and said, “Nothing my butt. That mirror is, in a way, enchanted. You were supposed to see Doppelganger in it.”

XDDDD An improvement to the birthday song, I daresay. Next time there's a birthday party, I ought to just randomly shout "Snorlax!" at the end of the song and see what kind of a reaction I get. XP

Almost as if Eric had asked the question out loud, he saw each of his family members shake their head. Except Snorlax, that is, who simply shrugged and began eating some leftover cake he had brought with him.

I really like that Snorlax. ^^

When it was done, it went back into the living room and found a place on the carpet between the couch and Lax, where Eric had been sitting, and began sleeping.

Aww...cute Ralts. ^^

“We didn’t understand… what you were… saying,” said John, as he fought for a piece of bacon Lax was trying to steal from him. Lax had finished its food in a couple bites, and it was too impatient to wait for a second serving. After Lax finally won the struggle and threw the bacon up into the air and let it fall into its mouth, John said, “But whatever you were talking about, you were pretty shaken up about it.”

XDDDD Yeah, never fight with a Snorlax over bacon. That's a fight you can't win. XD

Well, that chapter certainly introduced a considerable cast of new characters, which was a surprise. And again, that Snorlax...that guy's great. XD

The title of this weirds me out. I'm sure that was you're objective, to attract attention, but it feels...weird.

Anyway, here I go. Redeem me from an awful review I had to give today, please.

---

The people of this village lived together with Pokémon, and many trained them, also, as many others in this world did.

You use 'many' one too many times there. Also, there's some syntax strangeness here. The sentence is sort of confusing, and I'd reword it.

Telakon was a secret village, but if the world had knowledge of it, it would have mostly been known for being a race of psychics.

I'm assuming that you meant the people who lived in the town were a race of psychics, not the town itself. The sentence implies the latter-- do reword.

They became so powerful that they became known throughout the village as two of the greatest psychics ever known.

You use the word 'known' one too many times here, as well.

He had become greedy, selfish, and worst of all, careless about how he used his power.

Hhaha, this is like a public service announcement.

As far as Telakon was concerned, he was the greatest psychic that ever lived.

I'm not sure how this makes him a 'Pokemon Master.'

Seeing Siksensus become stronger than himself created an extreme envy, which grew and grew, until finally, Para became fed up of not being able to match up with his old best friend. He could not hold it inside any longer.

*raises hand* Question. But if Para was training under Sikensus, wasn't Para *always* the weaker one?

One thing led to another,

xD Sorry. Had to think of the journal-reading scene in Mammia Mia. Dot, dot, dot...

It was the same darkness that entered into one’s mind-in this case Para’s-and gave them the sole desire to destroy.

This sentence is extremely redundant. IMO, scrap it.

it was named “Evlimon” by the village.

You couldn't be just a *tad* more creative?

The Evlimon had seeped into Para’s son, and while Siksensus was able to banish the evil from one’s mind, he couldn’t expel it from one’s mind once it had started a dormant sleep, as it had done with Para’s son.

The word and phrase repitition here is pretty annoying.

had named “Doppelganger” was soon to be born

It sounds like a joke, honestly. I'm sort of expecting this, at this point, to be sort of like a save-the-world sitcom.

---

Alright. Big things first:

What in the world does this have to do with pokemon?

You threw the term 'Pokemon Master' in there for no apparent reason except to be able to post in this section of the fanfiction forum, and with the plot going the way it is, I'm not sure why you'd need pokemon at all. Why not just make it an original fic?

Secondly, your prose. Aside from some word repitition and one or two weird syntax problem, it wasn't bad, per se, but it was very juvenile. It wasn't engaging, and there wasn't good tone. It was light and easy to read, but it wasn't anything masterful. The only advice I can really give you on how to improve that is to read more, write more, and things will get better as you have more experience.

For now, mix up your prose. Use passive voice instead of active, pull out the ol' thesaurus, and get us more into the fic.

I actually did enjoy this, though I still insist that the non-pokemonness of it is a bit offsetting for someone who's looking for pokemon fanfiction.

Just to give you a better idea of what I think (this review must be very confusing, regarding my opinion of the fic), and if you like numbers, I'd give this a 3/5, or 6/10. Not bad at all, bt definitely not any kind of masterpiece.

The title of this weirds me out. I'm sure that was you're objective, to attract attention, but it feels...weird.

Lol, well... it kinda was my intention-by that I mean I realized it was sorta 'different' than just an average title, and the banner around the name of it probably enhances that. But the name of the fic is explained a bit in the first chapter, and probably down the road closer to the end of the fic it's explained even more.

I'm not sure how this makes him a 'Pokemon Master.'

I had that in mind when I wrote that. I didn't really mean the traditional 'Pokemon Master', as in a trainer who caught every Pokemon or whatever, but as in a special kind that the people of this village considers a worthy name for someone who's become great and powerful in psychic Pokemon training.

*raises hand* Question. But if Para was training under Sikensus, wasn't Para *always* the weaker one?

Wha... I didn't realize I said he was training 'under' him. I meant he was training with him, as a child, and as he grew up Siksensus became better than him. At some point, this frustrated him so much that he couldn't handle it.

xD Sorry. Had to think of the journal-reading scene in Mammia Mia. Dot, dot, dot...

Sorry, I can't say I know what you're referencing to. ^_^;

You couldn't be just a *tad* more creative?

Actually, this did happen to be one part of the fic I wasn't too happy with, but never got around to changing. :/

It sounds like a joke, honestly. I'm sort of expecting this, at this point, to be sort of like a save-the-world sitcom.

It's save-the-worldish, yeah, but I wouldn't say it's as dull and cliche-like as you're implying.

What in the world does this have to do with pokemon?

You threw the term 'Pokemon Master' in there for no apparent reason except to be able to post in this section of the fanfiction forum, and with the plot going the way it is, I'm not sure why you'd need pokemon at all. Why not just make it an original fic?

Lol, I guess I should have been more direct about it... this is definitely a Pokemon fic, and I realize the prologue may not make that seem so. The Pokemon battles and all that come in as soon as chapter 1 (well, the Pokemon come in chapter 1, but there's no battle until chapter 2). BTW, did you even read chapter 1? Not that I'm trying to ask for more than I need, but I get the feeling your opinion might change if you read it.

Secondly, your prose. Aside from some word repitition and one or two weird syntax problem, it wasn't bad, per se, but it was very juvenile. It wasn't engaging, and there wasn't good tone. It was light and easy to read, but it wasn't anything masterful. The only advice I can really give you on how to improve that is to read more, write more, and things will get better as you have more experience.

Alright, thanks.

Good luck with this; you seem to be enjoying it

Cool, thanks. I'll make all the corrections and stuff as soon as I get the time.

Originally Posted by Lord_sNap

I like the way you gave a personality for that Snorlax. XDDDDDDDDD Fight for the bacon!!!! Haha, there's no way you can beat a Snorlax in a fight for food.

Too bad he's not gonna be in there too long...

Thanks for reading. And yeah, sorry about Snorlax leaving. I'll try to give the other Pokemon good personalities as well.

Well, nothing to say but I hope you enjoy this. Haven't gotten around to putting Act's chapter 1 corrections down yet, but I've still got the task down in the back of my mind. So here's chapter 2:

Doppelganger
Chapter 2“The Mirror Core”

The girl smiled at Eric’s half worried, half confused look. “If you haven’t realized it by now, I’m the one who sent you the mirror as a gift.”

Eric’s eyes stretched wide open. “You? Wow, I was wondering where it came from. That must be why you know about it.” The girl nodded. But Eric was still bewildered about the nightmare it had given him.

“I delivered that Pokémon, too,” said the girl, eyeing the Pokéball in Eric’s hand.

Eric looked at it, then at the mirror in the girl’s hand. Suddenly Eric said, “This is crazy.” He gave a short chuckle and said, “There’s no way I can believe this. Something about that mirror must have been so strange that you knew it would give me a nightmare. That’s my explanation.”

The girl got steamed at Eric’s sudden denial of everything she was here for, which she hadn’t expected, and she said, “Nightmare? Do you seriously believe that was a nightmare?! Don’t be so thick-headed! I don’t have time for your silly little games. You can’t disown your successful initiation. As long as you saw Doppelganger in this mirror-” she jerked the mirror up,“-you’re the chosen one. It’s not something you can just pretend didn’t happen.” And with that, she folded her arms and stared away from Eric.

Eric slowly stood up, wondering what to do now. He stared at the girl, who was still staring to the side. “Well, it was nice to meet you, but I gotta go. Just keep the mirror… uh, see’ya…” Eric had the impression that the girl had completely ignored him, because suddenly she put a couple fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly.

The whistle called the little bird Pokémon from the branch over to her shoulder, and she promptly ran over to Eric’s bike. Eric saw where this was going and said, “Don’t you dare get on my new bike… which just happens to be a heck of a better present than that stupid mirror you gave me! …hey!” He watched as the girl jumped onto his bike and rode off. Naturally, he began chasing after it. He was no match for its speed, however, and was quickly falling behind. He looked around for someway he could catch up to it, but there seemed to be nothing he could do. Finally, he remembered he had a Pokémon with him. But would it listen? No time to think about it now…

“Ralts!” called out Eric, as he threw the Pokéball in front of him. It opened in midair and released the Pokémon, and then it flew back into Eric’s hand. Ralts now stood many yards in front of Eric, looking around.

“Ralts?” it said, confused as to what was going on. It stared at Eric, who was running at it, pointing towards the bike. Ralts looked around, but it didn’t have any interest in helping out, so it just lied down and rested its head on its hand. Eric, who had been running fast, nearly tripped on Ralts, but jumped just in time… only to fall a couple yards ahead of Ralts.

“Ow, got hurt again,” said Eric, as he spit grass out of his mouth. He got up and saw the bike ride down a hill. He quickly grabbed Ralts in his arms and continued running after his present. The bike, not the mirror.

As Eric ran off, back where he had just been talking to the girl, a mysterious took a few steps forward. He had been spying on Eric and the girl. He was wearing a mostly black, but partly purple, cloak. Under his hood was his shiny blue hair, which came down shortly to the top of his neck. He had sharp eyes that were staring straight at Eric as he ran down past the horizon of the hill he was going down. On the man’s suit was a symbol. The symbol was a purple eye. It looked surprisingly similar to the symbol that was on Estora’s forehead, and the one she wore on her clothes.

By now, Eric was out of the man’s sight, so he walked forward a bit. “Looks like I’ve found my target. And seeing as they’re just kids, this should be a snap.” And with that, the man proceeded to run after Eric.

“Hold on!” yelled Eric, when he finally realized that just running wouldn’t stop the bike from going. It wasn’t for another minute after this that the bicycle seemed to finally stop. But it had stopped on top of a hill, and the idea of running up it wasn’t exactly exciting to Eric.

The girl who had taken the bike now sat on it, hands gripping the handles, feet ready to kick off, mind set on going at any time, eyes staring back at Eric. “If you don’t want to cooperate, then I don’t want to either.”

“Alright, just come here real quick!” said Eric, kneeling down with his hands on his knees, exhausted. The girl rode the bike down to where Eric was, but she refused to get off. They stared at each other for a little while, thinking of what to say.

Suddenly, the man in the suit that had been following them said, “Well, well. That was a nice run. But now that you kids have finally stopped running, I believe its time for me to introduce myself.” The man was standing on the top of the hill, from where they had come from before. Despite his fancy, witty arrival, the man couldn’t help but breathe in and out rather openly.

“Oh, no,” said the girl, “I hope he wasn’t eavesdropping on us.”

Eric put Ralts down, which he had been holding absentmindedly this whole time. Ralts, who had been getting used to being held up, felt rather restless standing. Eric looked at the man on top of the hill. Was he with the girl? No, it seemed they were enemies of some sort. “Do you know that guy?” asked Eric.

“No,” said the girl, getting off the bike, “But I think I know what he’s after.”

The man on the hill laughed out loud, and then he said, “My name is Gator, one of three subordinates to Captain Rhydon, the Vile Beast. Pleased to meet you two young folk.” The man then took a moment to smile, and he began walking towards them. “I’ve been spying on you! Before I make my request, I’d like to enlighten you of the fact that you’re messing with dangerous people, that is, us in the Vile Gang. You didn’t notice me in this dark cloak, did you? Heh.”

Eric and the girl stared at the man, Gator, both a bit confused. “I don’t think wearing such a dark cloak helped your sneaking around at all, sir. Not around the green grass and blue sky of this town,” Eric mentioned.

Suddenly, Gator practically tripped on his cloak, but he caught himself just in time. Eric couldn’t tell if his comment had anything to do with this, however. Gator, his face completely red, yelled out, “What do you know about concealment and stealth?!” But Gator couldn’t help but realize the cloak he wore was only getting in the way, so he quickly threw it off of himself. Now, he was wearing an official-looking suit, like that worn by officers and members of a military. The one he wore was a bright blue color, and it had the purple eye symbol on his left side of his chest.. He also wore a badge, which looked like some sort of black dragon head, with red eyes on each shoulder side, the right of his chest, and on his officer-cap.

Gator, who had an all-new resolve, said as he adjusted his cap, “You see, my sole mission at this point is to seize that artifact around your tiny, little neck, miss. So if you’d be so kind-” Gator, who was now close to the girl, reached over for the necklace around her neck, but the girl got off the bike, away from the man.

“You can’t have it,” said the girl, as she stuck her tongue at the man. “I need this…” Suddenly, the girl rolled the bike close to Eric and put her hands on his shoulders. “WE need this!” she said.

As Gator began to walk towards them, Eric looked back at the girl as if she was crazy and said, “Are you kidding? I don’t care about that thing! I don’t even know what it is!” Then Eric stared at Gator’s looming figure staring down at him. Now that he was close, Eric noticed how tall the man was.

“In that case, you needn’t concern yourself about it,” said Gator, who was looking more and more dangerous, “Don’t make me mad, give me the freaking necklace!” Gator flung himself at Eric and harshly pushed him out of the way, and Eric fell to the ground.

The girl wasted no time and jumped onto the bike. She began peddling fast, and she started getting away. But the man pulled a Pokéball out of his pocket and threw it into the air. It released a large, blue, alligator Pokémon with red spikes on its back. The Pokémon, standing on two legs, was a bit hunchbacked, but looked quite powerful.

“Feraligator, grab that thing from her neck, now!” said Gator, and Feraligator was immediately on the job. It took one large jump, and then another larger one and landed in front of the bike, which crashed into it. Feraligator grabbed the bike and threw the girl off of it, and then it threw the bike away, which ended up falling and being crushed into itself. Feraligator stared down at the girl.

“Oh, no…” said the girl, who was now on the ground, staring up at Feraligator’s terrifying form. Suddenly, she screamed very loudly, and Feraligator was stunned for a moment. She took that moment to yell to Eric, “YOU! Quick, grab the Mirror Core!!” She clutched the beautiful sphere that was part of her necklace and snapped it off of the rope, which simply fell out. This was strange, of course, because there didn’t seem to be any explanation for how the rope could just go in and out of the sphere like it was some kind of liquid.

The girl threw the object high into the air, and Eric managed to jump and grab it. He looked down into the sphere, and saw the beautiful colors in it. “Wow, I didn’t notice how nice this looked before...” The sphere was so fascinating all of a sudden that Eric couldn’t take his attention off of it. Suddenly, he heard a strange scream. When he looked up, he saw that it was Ralts.

Feraligator held Ralts in the air with one hand, and it was helpless. Gator stepped forward and said, “If you don’t give me that Core, then don’t expect to see your little Pokémon alive in the next minute.”

Eric gasped. This couldn’t be! Ever since he got the mirror and the Ralts, weird things started happening. What was he supposed to do now? Even though Eric didn’t get much time to get to know Ralts, somehow he knew it was important to keep it safe. And yet, somehow he knew that it was important to keep the ‘Mirror Core’ safe, too. But what could be done in a situation like this? Eric looked around, helplessly.

The small valley they were all in was filled with grass, which swayed in the morning breeze, which was turning into an afternoon breeze. Eric’s hair and his large, white shirt also shook rapidly in the breeze. Eric began to feel a bit cold.

“I see you don’t understand the circumstances you are under,” said Gator, “Perhaps I should give your Pokémon a whipping, and then you’ll see…”

“No!” said Eric, and everyone stared at him. Now, Eric noticed that the cold feeling he began getting a moment earlier wasn’t the breeze. Somehow, the Mirror Core he was holding was giving him the same tingling feeling that he had experienced in the so-called ‘nightmare’ from the past night. But this time, the feeling was much more powerful. It was a peculiar, yet wonderful sensation. Eric was feeling the power from the Core surge through himself; through his veins, his heart, his mind…

Eric felt strange. In fact, his whole vision seemed to be failing him. Not only that, but he couldn’t stand straight, think straight, he couldn’t even hear the girl asking if he was alright. At first, Eric thought his body was simply growing weaker. He was completely unaware that it was doing quite the opposite.

“What’s wrong with you…” said the girl. She, Gator, Feraligator, and Ralts were all staring at Eric. His eyes suddenly began glowing a bright purple, and his hair stood up. Some sort of purple energy was surrounding him, and his clothes was shaking even more rapidly than before.

Eric, now with the same enhanced appearance he had seen in his talking reflection, held his head high and smiled. As he clutched the Mirror Core in his left hand tightly, it was smoking the same purple energy that was now surrounding Eric. “Let go of Ralts, now!”

“…the heck?” exclaimed Gator, who was absolutely perplexed. “What, is this what all the hype about that stupid sphere is? Wow, it makes you glow purple. Big deal. Well, nevertheless, I need that Core!”

The girl was still on the ground, watching the whole scene. Now, she began to understand what was going on. Eric had finally tapped into the power of the Mirror Core, and he transformed into the telekinetic Pokémon Master, Doppelganger!

The grass around Doppelganger glowed purple from the light that came from the Mirror Core and Doppelganger himself. “Hey moron, pay attention. I told you to let go of my Pokémon.” Doppelganger ceased smiling now, and began to get serious.

“If you keep that Mirror Core in your possession, then I’ll do the same with your idiotic Pokémon!” yelled Gator, “You know what? Feraligator, just crush that thing!!”

Feraligator began squeezing Ralts tightly, and Ralts began to whimper. It was feeling a great pain, and it wasn’t sure what it could do. But suddenly, it’s red horns began glowing and it sensed the great, psychic power coming from Doppelganger. Ralts looked at him, and Doppelganger looked back. They both stared at each other.

Doppelganger’s mouth opened wide. What was going on? For some reason, he couldn’t speak to Ralts telekinetically. He wasn’t sure why, but he was very sure he should have been able to. Seeing that it was just no use, Doppelganger finally decided to just call out to Ralts, “Use Confusion!”

Ralts, who instantly listened and obeyed, used the attack. Feraligator now had a purple silhouette, and it suddenly let go of Ralts, who fell to the ground. Feraligator, just as the name of the attack suggests, became confused as to what it was doing and started looking around with a blank stare.

Doppelganger stepped forward and said, “Good job, Ralts. Now use Psychic!” Ralts listened, but it didn’t respond. “What are you doing? Use Psychic!”

“It can’t!” said the girl, as she finally stood up, “Ralts doesn’t have that much experience! The only techniques it knows now are Growl and Confusion!”

After hearing this, Doppelganger bit his lip in frustration. Wasn’t Ralts supposed to be stronger, and full of experience? Well, it did look smaller than he remembered it… Finally, he settled with, “Confusion, again!” Ralts once again began stressing Feraligator’s mind into more confusion, so it began running around into trees.

Gator, who had no idea how to stop this, just watched as Feraligator slammed into tree after tree. There was nothing he could do but return his Pokémon, which he did. “You can expect to see me again, boy!” said Gator, before he leapt off out of the small valley. The man was finally gone.

Ralts fell to the ground, its arms straight down. It took deep breaths, totally out of energy. Even after only a couple Confusion attacks, it was quite weak. It had been in hardly any battles in its life, and this one took it all out of it. Although, Estora did notice that its Confusion attacks were stronger than expected under the circumstances…

The purple energy, which was psychic energy, was fading from around the Core, and consequently began to fade around Doppelganger. He walked over to Ralts and bent down next to him, saying, “I don’t know how I’m feeling this way, or why I feel like I knew you long ago, but it’s nice to see you again, old buddy.” Ralts was happy to hear the kind words, but they were strange to it since it had never really met Eric before.

“Doppelganger!” said the girl, as she ran over to him. Her pink hair flowed straight behind her as she ran, and her purple robes danced around in the wind. Doppelganger stared at her, the previous battle still ringing in his mind. She knelt down next to Doppelganger, and she took his arm in both of her’s. “You saved me, and Ralts, too! After all these centuries, you’ve finally returned!”

Doppelganger looked at the girl, his arm still in both of her’s, and asked, “Centuries? I feel like I’ve been asleep for ages, but how would you know about it?”

The girl looked back and said, “Well, it’s complicated…” This was strange. She had expected Doppelganger to be a totally different entity in this boy, but for some reason, she got the feeling that she was talking to the same kid she had biked away from a while ago. But he was different now, for sure…

Suddenly, the girl realized that the fist of Doppelganger’s arm that she was holding was still clenching the Mirror Core tightly, but it was barely glowing purple anymore. Inside the Core, the rainbow-ish colors that had spread all over the sphere when Doppelganger showed himself were now dying down in speed. Before long, the psychic energy was also gone. Eric was back to normal.

“What just happened…” said Eric, a little dazed. Suddenly, he noticed the girl holding his arm, and he said, “First you want my mirror, and now you want my arm?”

The pink-haired girl immediately let go of the arm and gave a laugh. Suddenly, Eric noticed something. The Core he was holding in his right hand was being tightly held. In fact, he felt like he was practically attached to it. And when he peeled his hand off of the sphere, he saw a great deal of sweat.

After this whole incident, of course, Eric was reconsidering the validity of all the rambling the girl had been making earlier.

* * * * *

Eric and the girl with him were now sitting under an Oran Berry tree, where they planned on having a little talk. Eric had to be filled in on this whole phenomena of transforming into Doppelganger, and now was the time. Eric grabbed two Oran Berries from the tree and tossed one to the girl. He took a large bite out of his and smiled as he chewed it.

“So,” said Eric, thinking of how to start the conversation. Still with a filled mouth, Eric managed to continue, “My name’s Eric Polymer. And you?”

The girl, after taking a small bite out of the Oran Berry and enjoying it, took another bite and said, “My name is Estora Senarosa.”

Eric looked at her with a funny expression on his face. He struggled to swallow the rest of his berry and said, “What kind of name is Estora?”

“That’s an honorable Telakonik name,” Estora explained. Estora was from a rather ancient village known as Telakon. This, Eric figured, explained the strange circle on her forehead. Telakon was where she had lived all her life, and it was in fact strange for her to see names that many others in the world thought were normal. “Eric? What kind of name is that? And what’s it supposed to mean?”

“It’s not supposed to mean anything!” exclaimed Eric, getting a little carried away. “Sorry,” he said as he calmed down. Eric looked down in slight embarrassment and noticed the Mirror Core in his hand. For some reason, he just couldn’t put it down for a second. It’s vibrant colors and psychic power seemed to grab Eric and not let go. From this point on, Eric felt he would have an important connection with the sphere.

Estora noticed Eric staring at the Core. She knew full well that the ball was very important. It was a vital object that Eric would need in his journey. That is, assuming Estora would find a way to break it to the boy that he had to leave the town he probably lived in all his life to go with her and save the world…

Estora pointed a finger at the sphere and said, “That Mirror Core was a special artifact protected in Telakon for hundreds of years. It’s filled with some sort of psychic powers. I’m not sure how it works, except that it relies on me to supply its energy.”

Eric listened in awe, and then asked, “What do you mean it relies on you?”

Estora smiled, “That’s exactly what I mean. Ever since the Mirror Core was made, it needed the lifelong sustenance of a psychic’s psychic power. The psychic looses all their psychic powers for the rest of their life, but the Mirror Core can live one more life time. It’s a harsh thing to give up-your hereditary psychic potential-but it’s absolutely necessary…” Estora trailed off a bit.

Eric stared at Estora. Something she said must have reminded her of something sad. Estora looked towards the sky. She had remembered the process that had gotten her into this whole situation. “What’s wrong?” asked Eric.

“Oh, it’s just…” said Estora, “…just that, ever since the Mirror Core was made, every first son, going down the line of descendants of the great psychic Siksensus, was required to give their powers up for the Core. So, as you can see, I’m not a boy. Well, the truth is, my father’s first child was me. So the plan was when he died, the Core would go to the oldest little brother I had. But my mother passed away before my first birthday…”

“I’m sorry about that,” said Eric. Sad as it was, this girl telling him of the death of her mother wasn’t going to convince him quite yet that she was being completely legit. All of this was strange to him, but it was an interesting story, nevertheless. Nice way to spend the afternoon. Although, despite the difficulty Eric had in believing and understanding the story entirely, after this, Eric wasn’t going to be able to let go of it, like putting down a book, and go home.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, on a plane going overhead of Machop Town, Gator stood atop the flying vehicle. The plane flew high above the clouds. In front of Gator was a Pokémon. The Pokémon was large and gray, and it was a like a two-legged, rock-rhino. It was called Rhydon, but this one was wearing a navy blue hat.

The Rhydon looked at Gator with a mean expression on its face. It was very mad about something, and it was growling under its breath. Gator wasn’t frightened of the Pokémon standing before him, but for some reason, he was waiting patiently for it to respond to his explanation of what had happened earlier concerning the Core.

Suddenly, the Rhydon opened up its large mouth and said, “So you’re telling me, you couldn’t steal a little ball from a little boy and girl?”

Gator looked away for a second, and then looked back at it and said, “Well, the kid somehow used that sphere to get all… strong and powerful, Pokémon trainer wise. He used his little psychic Pokémon to beat my Feraligator.”

Rhydon scowled at Gator. For some reason, it was always surrounded by fools who couldn’t do their job. But Gator must have been caught off guard after seeing the powers of the Mirror Core, so it would probably be necessary to give the man another chance. But only so many chances could be afforded before it showed that he had no usefulness. Rhydon smiled.

“Captain Rhydon, sir,” said Gator, as he bowed down to the Pokémon, “Please, give me another chance to get the item. I won’t fail you, sir!”

Rhydon nodded. “Go ahead and get it. But this time, plan it out. Remember, you’re not facing your run-of-the-mill, amateur, young Pokémon trainer. This boy’s got the Mirror Core, and that all on its own makes the boy a serious threat to Black Dragon.”

Gator nodded and bowed again. He couldn’t understand, however, how the Mirror Core could be so special, but now he was starting to understand why it was so important to steal it. It was more significant than meets the eye.

Gator made his way back into the plane, but Rhydon remained on the roof of it for a little while longer. It looked out into the sky and smelled the fresh air that could only be experienced at such a high altitude. It was always nice to be up in the air like this, but Rhydon couldn’t escape the fact that it was a ground and rock type Pokémon, and being a ground type meant it couldn’t easily handle being so high in the sky.

Rhydon grimaced and gave a low chuckle. It was strange for a Rhydon to be enjoying the air, but this Rhydon was different. It liked the air, just as long as there was a firm surface under its feet.

Rhydon finally made its way back into the plane, climbing down the stairs that lead to the roof. It closed the ceiling door after it went inside.

* * * * *

Eric now lied with his back to the tree and his arms behind his head. He felt the cool breeze once again blow through him and his large, loose, white t-shirt. Then he looked to his left side and saw Estora spacing out as she stared at the sky.

Eric shook her shoulder with his left hand and said, “You done with the story?”

Estora looked back at him and shook her head. She grabbed the Mirror Core from where it was laying on Eric’s stomach and looked at it. Eric felt a little empty when she took it, but didn’t mention it.

Estora held it high up above her and watched the Core’s colors shine beautifully. It wasn’t only a mysteriously powerful object, it was also very stunning to look at. “Well, my mother’s death… let’s just say at the end of the day it caused some major problems. So I ended up coming here.”

Eric nodded. He watched as a Caterpie-a small, green, caterpillar Pokémon with suction cup feet-crawled down the tree and passed him. Half the Pokémon in the town were Machop, so it was a nice refreshment to see something besides one of them. The Caterpie continued to crawl off towards another tree.

“Are you listening?” asked Estora, and Eric got a little nervous. But then she said, “I left off talking about why I was the one to come meet you. Did you hear that?”

“Oh, yeah,” said Eric, a bit relieved, “Yeah, I caught that part.”

Estora smiled and said, “Okay, so let me make the rest of this story short. Basically, since I had to power the Core from being destroyed, it was my turn to give it all my psychic energy every day. Even though I’m a girl. And so I found you, and here we are now. ” Estora stared at Eric for a second, took a deep breath, and added, “So now we have to go on a journey to defeat a great evil.”

Although Eric wondered why Estora’s father didn’t deliver the Mirror Core himself instead of sending a girl against the tradition, he shook it off and immediately stood up. He stood in place for a minute, and Estora waited patiently, wondering how Eric was going to take the news. After a long while of waiting, Estora broke the silence by saying, “Well? What’s the deal, you gonna make me force you to go or what?”

Eric stared out at the open sky. He sighed. He had swore to himself years ago that he wouldn’t go on any kind of Pokémon journey unless he was truly ready, no matter what age he was. Well, was he ready now? Eric looked down at the Mirror Core in Estora’s hands. Then he remembered. (Doppelganger… maybe he’s a sign! Maybe now’s the time to go on the journey I postponed these past couple years…) Eric closed his eyes.

“I’ll force you to come with me if it comes to that,” Estora reminded Eric. Of course, she hoped she wouldn’t have to try anything like that, and she didn’t really know if she could. “I can force you! I… I’m psychic, in case you’ve forgotten already!”

Eric smiled and responded, “What’s the use of being psychic if you can’t use the powers? I remember what you said. ‘The psychic looses all their psychic powers for the rest of their life.’ If it’s true you could somehow force me to do what you want, it’s not gonna be with psychic power.”

Estora blinked a couple times. At least Eric had been listening.

“Alright, then, let me have that Core so I can get going!” said Eric. Estora was pleased that he finally wanted to go along with this, and she stood up along with him. But suddenly, Eric said, “Wait, my parents! I can’t just suddenly leave them like this… Come on!” He grabbed Estora’s arm and ran off towards his house.

On the way, Eric grabbed his busted bike and took it along with him. He ran and ran with Estora right behind, thinking about what kinds of adventures he’d have. Eric never thought he’d see the day when he’d be going off on a journey. It always seemed so hopeless for him to be a good enough trainer. But with Doppelganger, he’d have all the necessary skills to be a great Pokémon trainer, and then some.

Eric passed a house on his way to his, which was only about five house lengths away from his own. It was kind of like a next door neighbor’s house, even though the house was kind of far away. In it lived the girl and her older brother that served as the closest thing to friends Eric had after his own family. And, well, maybe now, Eric had a new friend, who he happened to be nearly dragging towards his house.

Eric ran into his house and threw the bike onto the floor, and still pulling Estora, he ran into the living room. In there, his father and mother were sitting on the couch, watching a soap opera. It was something they always watched, called “Fury of the Fire Stone.” Eric peered into the kitchen and saw that his godfather was reading a newspaper known as the “Big Times,” which was actually a famous newspaper in Big City, because Machop Town was too small to have its own newspaper.

And finally, Lax was behind the couch, sleeping. Eric suddenly said out loud, “You guys, I have an announcement to make!” Everybody looked around and saw Eric and Estora standing there. Except Lax, that is, who was still snoozing. They all stood up and walked over to them.

“Eric, you’re back,” said John, “Uh… you made a new friend?” He was staring at Estora now, who was standing behind Eric almost timidly.

Eric nodded, “Um, yeah.” He looked around and saw everyone staring closely at the girl and said, “Hey, cut it out! She’s not a Pokémon!”

Suddenly, Lax awoke, and it jumped up. It walked over to the crowd to see what was going on, and it looked down from above their heads. Everyone looked at Estora, and Estora stared nervously back.

Eric, who grew tired of everyone staring at the one new friend he made in quite a long time, cut to the chase and said, “I’ve decided to go on a Pokémon journey!” really quickly. Nobody was expecting this, except Estora, so Eric’s family was taken aback. Eric, who had decided to pass the chance of becoming a trainer two years ago, suddenly changed his mind entirely? They knew there must have been something urging him to do this, and Eric could tell they were thinking hard about it.

“If you really want to, son,” said Clair, slowly, “Then I can get you some clothes in Big City. I’ll have them by tomorrow.” Clair smiled at her son, and Eric smiled back, amazed that she was so quick to understand him.

“Oh, my son! Going out on a journey to honor the proud Polymer family name!!” shouted John happily. Tears comically streamed out of his eyes as he looked to the sky-or technically, the ceiling. He roughed up his son’s hair.

“I always knew you’d come around,” said Fred, “You’re going to be great out there. No one will beat you.” Eric, who felt warm in the loving care and understanding of his family, almost laughed out in joy.

Estora smiled. Eric’s family was excited about his journey. That was nice and all, but this Pokémon journey would be far tougher than anything Eric would have had to go through starting a normal journey on his tenth birthday…

Wow...I wasn't expecting Captain Rhydon to be an actual Rhydon. That was a neat surprise. Gator, meanwhile...ah, that guy amused me. He may have been kind of a jerk, but he also seemed like kind of a blockhead, too...I was quite glad to see him get his kiester handed to him. ^^ Anyway, pretty solid work, here; the only mistake that comes to my mind right now is that there's not meant to be an "o" in Feraligatr.

Some nifty little parts:

You didn’t notice me in this dark cloak, did you? Heh.”

Eric and the girl stared at the man, Gator, both a bit confused. “I don’t think wearing such a dark cloak helped your sneaking around at all, sir. Not around the green grass and blue sky of this town,” Eric mentioned.

XD

The girl threw the object high into the air, and Eric managed to jump and grab it. He looked down into the sphere, and saw the beautiful colors in it. “Wow, I didn’t notice how nice this looked before...” The sphere was so fascinating all of a sudden that Eric couldn’t take his attention off of it.

Yes, beware of shiny, pretty things; they can eat your attention like popcorn…

What, is this what all the hype about that stupid sphere is? Wow, it makes you glow purple. Big deal.

That made me laugh. XD

Finally, he settled with, “Confusion, again!” Ralts once again began stressing Feraligator’s mind into more confusion, so it began running around into trees.

Gator, who had no idea how to stop this, just watched as Feraligator slammed into tree after tree.

I frelling love that image! BONK! BONK! BONK! XD

Suddenly, he noticed the girl holding his arm, and he said, “First you want my mirror, and now you want my arm?”

It's funny and very original. Sometimes though, when you are describing things it seems sort of list like. This is how he is and he has this also he has this. I skipped those paragraphs so I missed out on some information and probably made your story seemed a little less special to me.

Grammar- No errors that pop out at me
Originality- beautiful
Creativity-you must be creative to come up with this.
Overall-good!

Eric awoke the next day feeling strange. Had everything that had happened since his birthday been real? Perhaps not only did he not pick up the mirror, but he never left the house. And he never met Estora. And he never fought that Feraligatr, transformed into Doppelganger, or-

Suddenly, Eric noticed the Mirror Core sitting on his desk. Yeah, it was all real. Everything that had happened was perfectly real. But to Eric’s surprise, he wasn’t feeling sad about it. No, quite the contrary. He was feeling very happy and relieved that it all DID happen. The day had come that he’d begin his Pokémon journey.

Eric pulled himself up. His purple hair was very messy due to a night’s sleep, but then again, that wasn’t too much different than normal. Eric got out of bed and stretched. He looked at the end of his bed and saw the clothes his mother had bought for him the day before. Then he looked back at his pajamas. It was time to get changed. But first, breakfast. So Eric left the room, carrying his Mirror Core with him.

He arrived in the kitchen and saw Estora sitting with the rest of his family, eating breakfast. They were talking to her, and getting to know her. Estora had slept in the guest bed, which Fred usually slept in over the night. But Fred had let Estora stay in the guest room and slept on the living room couch, just this one night.

Estora seemed to look different, Eric noticed. And in a way, something about the way she looked was more familiar than yesterday, too. After a moment, he realized it was just that she wasn’t wearing that large purple jacket and small pants anymore. She was wearing some of Eric’s red pajamas. He didn’t make a big deal of it, however, because he was grateful to Estora for giving him this opportunity to have a good Pokémon training career. So he sat down in his seat and began eating his waffles and eggs.

“You have a delightful friend, here,” said John, “She was just telling us about how you saved her from a thief. Is that true, Eric?”

Eric looked up, with a mouth full of scrambled eggs. “Hm? Saved her…” Suddenly, Eric remembered how he became Doppelganger and fought off the guy who tried to steal the Mirror Core, which was currently in his pocket. “Oh, yeah… I did do that, didn’t I…”

Estora was smiling brightly. “He was great. He commanded that Ralts like he had been training it for months.” Everybody loved this, and Eric couldn’t help but laugh, egotistically. The way Estora was uplifting Eric’s sudden reputation with Pokémon to the family made it a sure thing they’d let him go.

* * * * *

After breakfast, Eric and Estora had gotten ready to go. Estora was back in her purple clothes, and Eric had gotten something new on. He was wearing a dark blue sweatshirt, and a dark blue pair of jeans. His shoes were black, with some blue in it. He also wore the beanie and backpack that his mother had given him, and the sleeping bag from Lax was strapped to the top of his backpack. And finally, he wore the golden necklace he had gotten from his godfather.

Eric held up the Mirror Core to his necklace. If he wasn’t mistaken, he could somehow connect the two. Sure enough, when he put the end of the necklace on the sphere, it went inside. He hung it around his neck as a complete necklace.

Eric was outside, and so was Estora. They were about to leave. John, Clair, Fred, and Lax had all seen them off to the doorway and were now saying goodbye.

“Snorlax!!” yelled Lax, tears rushing from its eyes, as it hugged both Eric and Estora. It was going to miss the two of them… well, at least Eric.

Eric felt the air blow out of him and said, “Um… I’ll miss ya, Lax.”

“Wait a second, what’s that ball attached to my necklace?” asked Fred, pointing at the Mirror Core. It took everyone’s attention with its shiny colors.

“It’s, uh…” said Eric, trying to think of how he should explain it, “…just a present she gave me.” Eric patted Estora on her shoulder.

So everybody said their goodbyes, and Eric and Estora were off. But before they could get very far, Eric’s neighbors came out of their house, running. The older brother was in his early twenties, and he had shiny orange hair that looked a bit like a bunch of whip cream on his head. And his sister was only nine years old, and she had the same orange hair, except it was like whip cream that trickled down to her back.

“Wait, Eric!” said the boy, who’s name was Sean. Eric watched as he came down to him. Sean continued, “I just wanted to say bye before you left. How could you forget to say bye to us? Clair had to tell us about your journey.”

Eric laughed. He had totally forgotten about telling them he was going. It came up so suddenly that he hadn’t had time to think of that. “Yeah, sorry. I’ll miss you guys.”

“Come back in less than a year to watch me become a trainer!” said the girl, who’s name was Lisa.

“Of course I will,” said Eric, smiling at the girl. “Alright, see’ya guys!” Eric and Estora left them.

“Strange,” said Sean, after Eric had left, “I wonder what made him so eager to go on a journey all of a sudden? Hm.”

At first, Eric and Estora just began walking. Estora was following Eric, but she wasn’t sure where they were going. Finally, she said, “Um… how can we get past those awful Machop?”

Eric looked to his side, where Estora was walking. He had almost forgotten about the Machop. Of course, every resident in the town had an ID, and they could go in and out of the town through the city walls. They could also invite nonresidents, like Fred, through the city walls. Estora could leave the town with Eric, if she had gone in with a temporary pass. But Eric had no idea how Estora got in.

“So… how in the world did you get in the town?” asked Eric.

Estora smiled. “Well, they didn’t let me through the city walls, so I was going to sneak in the town,” she said, still smiling, “But the Machop were chasing me all over the place, so I had Natu peck them off-fighting Pokémon don’t like flying attacks-and I was safe. But then I was stuck out of the town again, so Natu just teleported me in.” Estora stuck her tongue out at Eric, jokingly.

Eric swallowed hard. If she had gotten in Machop Town illegally, then how was Eric supposed to take her back out? Smuggle her through the Walls in his new backpack?

Estora stared at Eric as they walked. His face looked all tense and worried, and she knew that he must have been thinking that the way she got in the town caused a problem. “I can just teleport back out, you know,” said Estora.

Eric stopped worrying and nodded. “Yeah, you should do that.” Eric sighed. He had barely been walking five minutes before a problem seemed to pop up, but luckily, things were okay.

Suddenly, Estora grabbed the Mirror Core from around Eric’s neck, while it still hung on his necklace, and cupped her hands right around the Core, not touching it. It floated between her hands. The Core’s sparkly colors that normally flew around inside it were nonexistent; it was almost like a random glass ball. Eric recognized this as the Core’s way of showing it had no remaining power, because Eric could somehow feel all the psychic energy from yesterday was now gone. It was basically the opposite of the colors moving around crazily, as they had done when the psychic energy was being used for what Eric now knew was ‘Doppelganger’.

Estora began glowing purple, and so did the Core. Before long, it was over, and she put down the Core and looked away.

“What was that about?” asked Eric, as he inspected his Core.

“I was recharging it with my psychic energy,” said Estora, still not looking at Eric, “Remember? I’ve got to do that every day from now on.”

Eric nodded, and they continued their trip. (Heh,) Eric thought, (So I guess I’ll need to travel with her throughout the journey…) Eric began thinking of what kinds of adventures he may have in this journey with Estora.

After about ten more minutes of walking, Eric suddenly said, “You know, Estora. I’m going to call you Esty.”

“Yeah, I know,” said Eric, “But I want to call you Esty.” Estora gave Eric a somewhat nasty look, but then sighed. Eric looked away, and smiled. He wanted something special to call her, for some reason. ‘Esty’ would be a nickname only he recognized her by from this time forward. Eric didn’t know it, but after he had looked away from her, Estora also smiled.

After another half an hour of walking down the path, they finally could see the city walls in the distance. So just as they had planned, Estora made her way to the boundaries of the town, where she could already see Machop laying around and fighting, and Eric kept on the path to the Walls.

The large brown walls had indented drawings of Machop on it, and the height of the whole wall was about fifteen feet. Right in front of the wall-inside the boundaries of the town-was a small building, with one room, which you had to go through to enter or exit the town. When Eric arrived at the place, there seemed to be a problem.

He had walked inside the building, and he saw two security officers sitting behind a desk, as they always did. They wore police garments, and they were talking to a boy with spiky, black hair. He was wearing a black t-shirt and khaki pants.

“What do you mean I shouldn’t go through?!” asked the boy. He had his arms on the desk and he was getting impatient.

The officers were looking quite lazy, and one of them piped up, “Can’t you read?” He pointed to a poster on the wall. It read:

Warning!!
The immediate area beyond the Machop Town Walls has recently been terrorized by a powerful Machoke. This Pokémon is wild and crazy, and it will attack anyone who comes near these walls. We advise you not to leave the town until something has been done about this problem. You have been forewarned.

After reading the sign, the black-haired boy asked, “Who’s doing something about the problem, then?”

The two security officers got a little mad at this. One of them grunted and said, “Why should we care? If you want the thing outta the way now, go do something yourself, you punk kid!”

The boy mumbled under his breath in anger. Suddenly, Eric said out loud, “I’ll get rid of the thing.” Everyone looked at him. Eric began walking to the other side of the room to reach the walls.

Suddenly, the other boy put his arm in front of Eric and said, “Hold on. I never said I couldn’t take care of things. Just stick around here and everything’ll be safe in a half hour.” The boy then began walking to the door.

“Oh, I don’t have that much time to spend waiting around,” said Eric, and after hearing the kid growl in anger, Eric said, “I’ll come with you.” He still wanted to take this challenge. The boy didn’t respond and just opened the door. Eric followed.

Behind the door were the humongous walls, which the security officers switched open with controls in the room. They took a few seconds to open, and when they did, the two boys walked through them.

Eric followed the boy a few yards behind him. He had rarely been out of Machop Town, and almost always it had been simply to accompany his parents or his godfather or Sean into Big City. But now, he was alone. Excluding this other boy, that is.

Eric sped up his walk to catch up to the other boy. He wanted to know what he was all about, and if he was a trainer. He was about to touch his shoulder when he suddenly felt something heavy drop on his head, and he fell to the ground, flat on his face.

When he got back up, he saw that it was the Natu from earlier that had practically assaulted him. And not surprisingly, Estora walked from the crowd of trees that surrounded all of Machop Town except the path that came through the City Walls.

After having a hard time pulling the large sleeve of her robe-jacket off of a bush it had gotten tangled in, Estora made her way into the path, which was known as Machop Road, inside and outside the town. She walked up to Eric and said, “Alright, time to go.”

Eric shook his head. “I’ve got a job to do, first. And it’ll help me start to get experience in Pokémon training,” he said. After seeing that Estora had no idea what he was talking about, Eric ran a bit to catch up to the other boy.

The two boys walked together, but the black-haired boy was ignoring Eric. Estora was following from a few feet behind them. “So, what’s your name?” asked Eric, suddenly, smiling.

The black-haired boy didn’t immediately respond, making it seem like he was just going to continue to ignore Eric. But after about thirty seconds, he finally said, “Rocky.”

Eric, a bit startled that Rocky finally answered the question, managed another smile. “Nice to meet you, Rocky. My name’s Eric.” Eric was sure Rocky heard him, even though he didn’t show any sign of doing so. Seeing that Rocky wasn’t in much of a mood to talk, Eric finally left him alone and just walked.

Before long, the two of them reached a block in the road. There was a huge boulder covering the whole path, and a bunch of smaller rocks around it to reinforce the blockade. Sitting on and around many of the smaller rocks were a group of Machop.

Rocky smiled. “Are these the Machoke that guy was talking about? They look harmless!” He quickly pulled a Pokéball from his pocket.

“They’re not harmless, they can really fight,” said Eric, “And besides, these are just ordinary Machop. I’ve never seen a Machoke in person, but I’m sure they’re bigger.”

Rocky stopped smiling at that, but he wasn’t fazed. He speedily threw the Pokéball he had in the air and it released the Pokémon inside. To Eric and Estora’s surprise, a huge, rock-snake formed in front of their eyes. It was composed of a chain of boulders, and at the front was its rock head.

“Onix!” yelled Rocky, as his smile returned, “Get rid of all the small rocks and the Machop on them!” Just as he said this, Onix bellowed with its deep, roaring voice, and gave a few mighty swipes of its tail. It whacked all the smaller rocks out of the way, and the Machop, too. Afterwards, all that was left, besides some leftover pebbles, was the huge boulder.

“Wow, that was nice!” said Eric in admiration. He watched as Rocky walked a little further on the path to pat his Onix on the back of one of its boulders.

“So, now can we get going?” asked Estora. She put her fists on her waists with her elbows sticking out, waiting to hear Eric’s response.

Eric looked back at her and said, “Hold on, Esty. The Machoke didn’t come-”

Suddenly, from out of the trees to the side of Machop Road, something jumped swiftly into the air. It landed on top of the huge boulder, its left knee resting on the rock. It looked like a Machop, but it was a lot taller. It had red stripes along its arms, and wore some sort of black underwear and a power belt. It was apparently very muscle-bound, as it stood up on its feet and flexed its biceps in the sun.

“That must be the Machoke!” said Rocky, gazing up at the Pokémon. Rocky pointed at it, and Onix immediately dove for it. It tried to tackle it with its large head, but Machoke jumped high into the air, dodging the attack. Then, it fell onto Onix’s back, sort of close to its head. “What? No!”

“Machoke! Choke!” said Machoke, as it laughed. Suddenly, it whacked Onix with the side of its hand. After hearing Onix’s roar of pain, Machoke suddenly gave it a barrage of whacks. It kept on going and going, and after a moment, Onix fell to the ground. Machoke continued its assault, however.

“Fighting type attacks are too harsh for Onix,” said Rocky, as he pulled out his Pokéball and returned it. Just then, Eric was about to bring out his own Pokémon, considering it his turn, but suddenly Rocky pulled out a couple more Pokéballs. He threw them into the air simultaneously, and two Pokémon were released.

One was a large, brown rat that stood on its feet. It had big buck teeth. The other was a plant with a skinny stem, roots as feet, two leaves as arms, and a bell flower as a head. The two Pokémon stood next to each other a few feet ahead of Rocky.

“Raticate and Bellsprout,” said Rocky, “Raticate’s normal type won’t help much for the latter part of the fight, but Bellsprout can finish it off.”

Eric began to feel a little annoyed with Rocky. He was spouting out with a little too much information. But he decided to stand back and watch, because Rocky seemed to know what he was doing.

“Raticate, use Super Fang!” Rocky called out. Raticate suddenly jumped to Machoke, its mouth wide open, but Machoke moved out of the way just in time. Raticate bit the hard boulder that was blocking the path, but it made it out of that okay. “Bellsprout, use Wrap to hold it down!”

Bellsprout extended a couple hidden vines and wrapped them around Machoke, restraining it. Of course, Machoke’s strong build and muscles wouldn’t allow for it to go for very long, so it was only a matter of seconds before it broke free. But before it did, Raticate suddenly used its Super Fang attack and bit harshly into Machoke’s shoulder.

“Was that Super Fang?” asked Eric, a bit surprised at the harshness of the attack.

“It cuts Machoke’s health in half, so it should be a breeze finishing it off!” said Rocky. Suddenly, Machoke grabbed Raticate and threw it to the boulder. It then proceeded to punch and kick Raticate, easily defeating it. Rocky returned his Pokémon like it was no problem, and had Bellsprout get ready to finish the battle. “Now Bellsprout, use Vine Whip to hurl Machoke into the air, and then whip it!”

Bellsprout used its Vines to throw Machoke in the air, and then it whipped it back to the ground. After that, it continued to whip Machoke, which covered its head with its arms, trying to block away part of the damage.

Suddenly, ten Machop came from out from the trees. Eight of them surrounded Bellsprout, and the other two grabbed Machoke and hauled it onto the boulder. Then, those two Machop joined the other eight in surrounding Bellsprout.

“Machop! Machop!” yelled one of the Machop. The other joined in with yells of the sort, all showing their anger. Bellsprout, of course, wasn’t interested in fighting all of the Machop all on its own.

“What the heck?” said Rocky, “What ever happened to playing fair?! One-on-one was going fine with me! Isn’t it bad enough I have to face an evolved Pokémon with a Bellsprout?!” Rocky waved his fist at the Machop in anger, but they didn’t care the least bit. The way things were looking, Bellsprout had no chance of winning.

“Bell!” cried Bellsprout, as it watched all the Machop jump at it. All of them, together, beat Bellsprout up harshly. They kept on sticking their fists and feet at it, hitting it over and over again, until Rocky couldn’t take it anymore. He tried to return his Bellsprout, but the Machop were in the way of the bright, red returning beam that shot out of his Pokéball and unfortunately faded after hitting the backs of the Pokémon.

Eric knew this was his time to shine, but just as he decided to finally get in the fray with Ralts, he heard Estora say from behind him, “Help Rocky’s Bellsprout!” Right after that command, Natu flew past Eric and Rocky from between them and immediately pecked a Machop, which fell.

“What’s that?” wondered Rocky, as he watched the small, green bird peck Machop after Machop to the ground.

“Those Machop are a pain, I know,” said Estora, as she walked up in-between Eric and Rocky with a smile, “Now quick, call back your Bellsprout!”

Rocky smiled, and he returned Bellsprout. This time he had no trouble because all the Machop that had been in his way were currently on the ground. Of course, after a while, the Machop got up and began beating up on Natu, and it couldn’t take the pressure.

Estora clenched her fists, hoping that Natu could somehow scare the Machop away, but before long they were all attacking it, and she had no choice but to return it.

“Well, that was my only Pokémon,” said Estora.

“Nice job, though, helping me out,” said Rocky, who was staring at Estora. “But what can we do now? I used up my Pokémon, too.”

Suddenly, both Estora and Rocky heard Eric give a little laugh as he stepped forward. He was about to give his turn a try. As he walked ahead of them, though, Rocky noticed the golden chain around Eric’s neck that ended in the colorful sphere. It peaked his interest.

“Smart of you two to save the best for last,” said Eric, feeling very cocky all of a sudden. He pulled a Pokéball out of his solitary pocket that covered the bottom of the front of his blue sweatshirt, and he threw it out in front of him.

“Ralts!” said Ralts, ready for some action. After the previous day’s fight, where it was able to shine in battle, Ralts now felt that it could go the extra mile and fight any opponent it was called on to defeat.

“Now watch and learn,” said Eric, confidently, “Ralts, use… um, use…” Eric struggled inside himself to remember Ralts’ attacks. What was going on? Why didn’t he remember any of them? He just had a battle yesterday! Sure, in that battle, turning into Doppelganger kind of made him feel different and strange, but how does that mean he could totally forget Ralts’ attacks?!

Suddenly, one of the Machop tripped Ralts to the ground with a powerful swipe of its leg. After falling, Ralts’ confidence in winning began to drop.

“That was a Low Kick attack,” mumbled Eric, “But now how about Ralts’ attacks…”

“What in the world are you waiting for?!” asked Rocky, “Your Pokémon is going to lose before it even starts fighting! Hurry up and use some attack with it!”

Eric nodded, but he couldn’t remember well enough to do so. He did remember using a psychic attack once or twice yesterday, but he couldn’t remember what it was. This must have been the worst situation Eric ever could have gotten himself into.

All the rest of the Machop joined the first one in beating up Ralts, in the same fashion they had used against Bellsprout and Natu. Things were looking very grim, and Ralts couldn’t take the extreme physical assault.

Out of the blue, Rocky ran up to Eric and grabbed him by the shoulders. He shook him hard, saying, “Hey! I’m not the one who’s in trouble, you and your Pokémon are! Why are you just standing around? Hey! Snap out of it! Are you listening-”

Suddenly, Rocky noticed a light. He stopped shaking Eric, who was feeling very hopeless, looking down. There, he saw the sphere from earlier glowing a bright purple. After a while, he saw Eric begin to glow, and he completely let go of him.

After watching Rocky walk back to her from Eric, and seeing Eric glowing, Estora said, “The Mirror Core! I almost forgot! Alright, he’s transforming!”

Rocky looked at Estora, clueless as to what she was talking about, and then looked back at Eric. His head was drooped down, along with his arms. His clothes were all waving hard, as a wind blew from nowhere. His hood was blowing around the most obviously, and the purple hair that came out of the bottom of the back of his beanie stuck up. Rocky was quite shocked at this change.

The Machop, however, were not paying the slightest attention. They were still beating on Ralts, which had less than half of its health left by now.

Eric’s eyes were now a bright purple, rather than blue. Purple, psychic energy was flowing from the Mirror Core, and also from Eric himself. He had finished transforming.

“Doppelganger!” called out Estora, both surprised and happy.

Doppelganger smiled and said, “Only weaklings double and triple team a young Pokémon!” The Machop didn’t seem to care, however. “Ralts! Use Confusion, on all of them!!” said Doppelganger.

Ralts heard, and when it sensed Eric it noticed all the psychic energy and realized it was Doppelganger. Ralts concentrated on the Machop, imagining them all blast away from it, and then it used its psychic power. Just as it imagined, all the Machop were thrown through the air.

Rocky and Estora gasped. They didn’t expect such power to come from the Ralts. But Doppelganger only continued smiling. All the Machop had fallen to the ground, all over the place. They all stood up and felt dazed. Some of them were even at the point of confusion, where they couldn’t stand or think straight. So eventually, all the frightened Machop ran off through the trees.

“Alright, you did it!” said Estora. Rocky smiled, too. But Doppelganger wasn’t celebrating yet, which confused Estora and Rocky at first. But then they noticed why Doppelganger was still in a fighting mood.

Machoke, ready for round two, jumped down from its boulder. It wasn’t at full health, but it was ready to give a good fight. It bended down on its knees and put up its hands. Its fingers on each hand were together in a manner so as it could use Karate Chop attacks.

Ralts stood up, and it was ready to fight to the end of the battle with Doppelganger. It had been heavily bruised, red marks all over its body, but it stood strongly. It watched as Machoke ran towards it, and it braced itself.

Hmm........its pretty good. Plot is very interesting but why does this sound a bit like Yu Gi Oh?

Heh, yeah, it was partly influenced by Yugioh, I admit. I just thought the general idea would be interesting when combined with Pokemon and psychics... yeah. I don't think it really detracts from the story, though.

Rocky watched in awe as Doppelganger stood his ground. What happened to him? Just a moment ago he was standing around, hesitating in battle. And then his necklace glows, and all of a sudden he’s commanding the battle. But that must’ve been it. The necklace around his neck must have performed some kind of magic. But was that even plausible?

“Dodge!” called Doppelganger, and just as Machoke shot its hand down at Ralts, it moved to the side so that Machoke’s Karate Chop hit the ground, creating a small puff of dust. Machoke immediately kicked the ground to move to the side, where Ralts was now running.

“Machoke!” yelled Machoke, as it prepared itself for another Karate Chop in midair. It had its right arm bent out in front of it, ready to swipe another Karate Chop on its opponent.

When Ralts ran back to a tree, Doppelganger said, “Use Confusion on Machoke, and then move out of the way!” Machoke, still airborne after it shot itself towards Ralts with its leg, was nearing Ralts quickly. But Ralts obeyed Doppelganger’s order and began glowing. It used the attack on Machoke, who immediately became confused and couldn’t finish the attack. However, it was still on course to crash into Ralts.

Ralts moved out of the way just in time for Machoke to hit the tree behind it. After smacking into it, Machoke broke out of its confusion, but it was too hurt to get back up for immediate retaliation. It held its head in its hands as it sat next to the tree.

“This is it!” said Doppelganger, “Ralts, use all of your psychic power on a Confusion attack, and then send Machoke straight to the boulder!” Doppelganger pointed at the huge rock that still blocked the path.

Ralts now trembled heavily as it glowed, summoning up the remains of its psychic power. It’s purple glow became rather large, and it got Machoke floating in the air. Ralts sent it flying towards the large rock, and Machoke was feeling more and more dazed by the second. Suddenly, it hit the boulder hard, even giving it a circular multitude of connected cracks, about a yard in diameter.

Machoke fell to the ground, feeling completely out of it. Ralts also fell to a sitting position, and it rested with its back to the tree. Doppelganger stood patiently, watching the two Pokémon rest. After a few moments, Machoke jumped to its feet and ran off through the trees.

Doppelganger sighed. It seemed it was all over. Suddenly, he looked back at Rocky, who was surprisingly a little frightened of him. Rocky stared anxiously at Doppelganger, wondering why he was staring back so avidly. But Rocky noticed that the sphere at the bottom of his necklace was losing its purple energy surrounding it, its purple glow, and the colors inside it were slowing down and getting less bright. Also, Doppelganger’s bright, purple eyes were dimming down.

Before long, Doppelganger was back to his normal self: Eric. His eyes were blue, his necklace was normal, and his hair wasn’t standing up anymore. But Eric was feeling weak, and he fell to the ground. His eyes were half closed, and he could barely sit himself up on his arms. His hands grasped pebbles and dirt on the road, and he sprinkled them out. He was feeling quite strange, just like he did after his transformation the day before.

Rocky watched as Estora ran up to Eric and kneeled down close to him. She helped him up to his feet, and Eric smiled. “Thanks…” he managed to say. Then he was let out of Estora’s helpful arms and struggled to stay on his feet.

“That was some show you gave us,” said Rocky, his smile finally returning. He was starting to understand that Eric hadn’t just gone through a sudden change of personality, he had totally transformed into another personality. “I didn’t realize you had such a… diverse persona.”

“Diverse? …Perso-what?” Eric asked, confused. Not only did his vocabulary just barely recognize those words, but his being out-of-it wasn’t helping, either.

“It was great seeing your shadow return,” said Estora, “Doppelganger was even more incredible than the first time!” Estora beamed at Eric, who looked back at her, still dazed. He smiled, though, after a moment.

Rocky smiled also, standing a few feet back from Estora and Eric. So this “transformation” turns him into Doppelganger. And he did it before. It definitely had something to do with the sphere around his neck. All these thoughts raced through Rocky’s mind. It made him more interested in getting to know Eric.

“Sorry, I was being rude earlier,” said Rocky, as he walked up closer to Eric and Estora. “Let me introduce myself further. My real name’s Carl Trek.”

Eric smiled back and said, “My real name really is Eric. Eric Polymer.”

Estora also smiled and said, “And I’m Estora Sensus. So, why did you say your name was Rocky?”

“People started calling me Rocky because of the Onix my father gave me as my first Pokémon, so I decided to stick with that nickname,” said Rocky, “I just started a journey a couple weeks ago.”

The three of them decided that they should get going along the road. But first, they still had the large boulder to move out of the way. And of course, Ralts couldn’t do it, for it had used up the rest of its energy in the last battle.

“Maybe we can break it, it has quite a few cracks,” said Estora, “But we have no more Pokémon that can help.”

“We can take care of it,” said a voice from behind them. It was one of the security officers, standing next to the other one. “All we needed was someone to scare the Machoke away, and you guys actually did it.” They explained that they had been quite annoying earlier only because of their frustration at the Machoke that they couldn’t get rid of. The two officers let out their own Pokémon: one Machop each. The two Machop ran up towards the rock and simultaneously kicked it powerfully on its cracks.

After about fifteen seconds of watching cracks form all over the boulder, it suddenly blew up into a million pieces. Everyone had to cover their heads for a moment before it was safe to see all the rocks, of many different sizes, scattered on the road. Of course, these rocks were a piece of cake to get rid of, and the Machop quickly brushed them or threw them out of the way, depending on their size.

Afterwards, the path was almost perfectly clean. “We’ll finish brushing it off. You guys just get outta here already,” said a security officer.

So Eric, Estora, and Rocky went on their way. They kept on their walk straight on Machop Road.

“So as I was saying, I just started my journey,” said Rocky, “And of course, I’m ten. Are both of you on a journey?” He smiled as he looked at Estora.

“Um…” said Eric, as he followed Rocky’s eyes to Estora, “Yeah, I was saying, I’m on a Pokémon journey, but not your traditional badge collecting, Pokémon League journey. And Esty’s just… a companion of mine.”

Rocky frowned. “What kind of journey would you have to wait ‘til the age of twelve for?”

Eric shrugged. There really was no way to explain this with out getting made fun of, so he said, truthfully, “I wasn’t confident enough to go on a journey at ten, so it took me until these special circumstances came up for me to have the courage.”

Rocky nodded. It seemed rather sad, really. No confidence? Rocky never really thought about the confidence to want to start a journey; it just came along with the thrilling, suspenseful wait to start one. And what could these special circumstances be? Perhaps they had something to do with Doppelganger…

Before long, the three of them got to a fork in the road. This was where Machop Road ended, and it turned into two different paths. The one to the right was called “Big Street,” and it lead to Big City, obviously. The other one, however, was called, “Celebrity Street,” and it seemed to lead to a forest.

“Have you guys been to Big City before?” asked Rocky, “That’s where I live.”

Eric nodded, “I’ve been there every now and then in my life. My godfather lives there, in fact.”

“When I came to this part of the region to find Eric, I had to take a plane to Big City before I could walk over to Machop Town,” said Estora.

“I’m not sure about Celebrity Street,” said Rocky, “I heard it leads to some famous city or something. So let’s just go to Big City for awhile.”

They all agreed to go to Big City, so they walked along Big Street to their next destination. It was late afternoon, so it would be getting dark by the time they got there.

* * * * *

The bustling metropolis of Big City was filled with skyscrapers, smoke-fuming factories, and streets that were never void of vehicles. It was your average, run-of-the-mill “big city.” There were always people filling the streets, and they all seemed to have somewhere to go.

Eric, Estora, and Rocky walked down Big Street, which led straight through the heart of the city. They were following Rocky’s lead, of course, because he was the one that invited them to come along to the city.

Eric’s head fell straight back as he struggled to see the tops of the many skyscrapers. “Man, these huge building never cease to amaze me. Living in a small, peaceful town like I do really makes it an incredible experience to come to this place.” They walked on, enjoying the sights.

While the three of them walked, they were being watched from the top of a random restaurant. It was Gator, and he was watching every move they made. Last time, this “Doppelganger” character had somehow defeated his Feraligatr with a puny Ralts, but this time, things would be different. This time, Gator had a plan.

“Yes, you fools,” said Gator, to himself, “You’ll be easy prey to my trap, boy,” he added, staring at Eric. He then proceeded to jump onto another building, and another…

“Guys, I’m getting really hungry, now,” said Estora, “C’mon, let’s go get something to eat.” She held her tummy as she heard it grumble.

So they decided to find a restaurant to eat in. Eventually, they found a place, and after they were done, it was evening, so they went to Rocky’s place to spend the night.

Rocky’s house was right next to a large building. The building was owned by “Trek Co.” It seemed it was attached to Rocky’s house.

“That building over there is my father’s hiking company,” said Rocky, “My dad goes hiking on mountains and places like that, mapping uncharted territory, making beaten paths on them, and making cabins along them, too. He got me my Onix on one of his trips.” After saying this, the three of them walked into Rocky’s house.

Gator watched them walk into the house from across the street. He smiled knowing this upcoming night, Eric would have something unexpected coming.

The house was pretty average, a pretty big living room with a couch and a table, to the left was a hallway that led to bedrooms and bathrooms, a kitchen, and a door that led to the Trek Co. building.

Rocky introduced Eric and Estora to his mother. She was a young lady with long black hair, and she was wearing a simple white dress. “Pleased to meet you all. Looks like Carl is making even more friends on his journey.”

Eric and Estora smiled back and complimented her for her son’s early Pokémon training skills, and she blushed and laughed happily. Rocky smiled, too.

Rocky’s father wasn’t around at the moment, so he couldn’t introduce them to him. But as the night approached, Rocky’s mother let Eric, Estora, and Rocky sleep over. Rocky slept in his own bed, Estora slept in Rocky’s father’s bed, since his father wasn’t in for the night, and Eric insisted on sleeping on the couch.

In the middle of the night, there was a tapping sound. Something was tapping on the window. The window, which was next to the front door, was in the living room, the same room that Eric was sleeping in, so naturally, he was the one who woke up.

Eric rubbed his eyes and looked around. What was going on? Something woke him up, a tapping noise. He walked over to the window and pulled the blinds. He saw something pecking on the window: a small, brown, bird Pokémon. After it got Eric’s attention, it began waving its wings around. Eric shrugged and walked over to the door.

He opened it up and looked around. He saw the little bird standing way over on the sidewalk. “Hey, a Pidgey. What’s going on?” The Pidgey looked behind it nervously, and then it looked back at Eric and waved its wings again.

Eric walked over to the Pidgey, and it suddenly jumped up and flew over to the other side of the street. Eric sighed. It was the middle of the night, and he was supposed to follow this Pidgey around? He had taken off his sweatshirt, shoes, and beanie. And of course, he left his backpack in Rocky’s house, too. Even his Mirror Core necklace, which he always felt strangely empty without, was sitting on the table next to the couch.

Eric looked around and saw quite a few cars coming by here and there, even though it was 3:00 in the morning. If only he had his shoes, or at least socks, to cover his feet from the dirty concrete ground of the city…

Concerned about all the cars, Eric ran over to the crosswalk, and when he got across, he ran over to where Pidgey was. “Alright, now what’s the problem?” Suddenly, the Pidgey was grabbed by a Feraligatr, which had been standing in the shade of an alley. It held Pidgey in its two hands, smiling. And sure enough, Gator came following Feraligatr, into the light of the lamppost that Eric was standing under.

“What?!” exclaimed Eric with surprise, “Not you again!”

“That went perfectly,” said Gator, “I had Feraligatr threaten this Pidgey into luring you out here, and here you are! Heh.” Feraligatr then let go of the Pidgey, which flew off. Then Feraligatr grabbed Eric in its powerful arms, which he couldn’t break free of, and followed Gator down the street…

Eric couldn’t talk because Feraligatr had one hand over his mouth, so Gator was making his kidnap secret. They continued to walk quickly down different streets for the next ten minutes, and finally, Gator made his way into an abandoned building.

The building was some sort of a house, and it was in terrible shape. Little to no light filtered through the broken windows, and the wooden floors creaked with every step. It seemed as though no one had occupied the place for years.

Feraligatr finally let go of Eric, but made sure he didn’t make a run for it by guarding him. Gator laughed and said, “Nothing like a little abduction to thrill the night up, eh? Well, you know what I want, so make things easy on yourself and give it up.”

Eric, who was on the ground, coughed and gasped a bit. He wasn’t used to having air come in through his mouth after the last ten minutes, but he finally responded, “What do you want from me now?”

Gator frowned. He walked a little closer to Eric and said, “Don’t play dumb. I want the Core, you moron. Hand it over.” Gator waited a moment, but Eric only seemed to be ignoring him so he repeated, “Hand it over!”

Eric sighed. Even if he had decided to give it up, he couldn’t. He had left the Mirror Core necklace on the table next to his bed, where it was now safe. But surprisingly, he felt strongly that he should have it at the moment, even if it wouldn’t have been protected hanging from his neck at the time. Eric hadn’t realized how much stronger the feeling of emptiness would become the further away he was from the sphere…

“The Core is a part of me now!” yelled Eric, “And even if I had the freaking thing with me, I’d die before I handed it over to the likes of you!!”

Gator gasped. Even Feraligatr was taken aback. Not only did they not expect him to make such an outburst, but the Core wasn’t even with him! Gator scowled down at Eric, angry as ever. “You fool! Why didn’t you say something earlier?!” Gator didn’t even realize the absurdness of his question, but it didn’t matter. He got the point across to the boy that he meant business when he stomped his foot on the ground after his last yell.

A second after the stomp, the ground under Gator collapsed. Feraligatr luckily grabbed him just in time, so he was saved. Eric took this chance to get up and run, but Feraligatr caught him before he left the rundown building.

Eric struggled hard to get out of Feraligatr’s grip, but he couldn’t stop it from hauling him over to the other end of the building. Then, Feraligatr went to the door to guard it. Unfortunately for Eric, the only way out of the building was the front door, the one being guarded.

“Shoot,” mumbled Eric to himself. If only he had his Ralts with him. Or at least his Mirror Core necklace. Heck, Eric was even giving a lot of thought to socks, which would have prevented what seemed to be about fifty splinters poking his feet.

Suddenly, something came in the building. It was the Pidgey from earlier, and it had flown through one of the broken windows close to the door. It was holding something in its beak. Eric stood still. Was that the Mirror Core it was bringing? That must be it! But Eric wasn’t feeling any better as Pidgey came…

When it finally landed in front of Eric, he saw that it was a Pokéball it had brought. Well, it was better than nothing. At least now he could battle. “Thanks a lot, Pidgey. Although, you kinda got me in this mess in the first place…” Suddenly, Pidgey furiously pecked Eric’s head. “Alright! Alright! I’m sorry!”

Pidgey flew up to a broken chandelier to watch more events unfold. Gator spat at the ground and said, “Hey, what was that for, you stupid bird?!” Gator sighed and then looked at Eric. After giving a smile, he said, “No matter. I can defeat you this time. Last time, the Core is what threw me off guard.”

Eric frowned. He had forgotten all about the success that Doppelganger provided him in Pokémon battles. How could he battle without his shadow alongside him? Nevertheless, Eric threw the Pokéball into the air with gusto, feeling he could win the battle as long as he had his psychic Pokémon friend.

“Ralts?” said Ralts, as it appeared before Eric. It looked around, wondering why everything was dark. Then, it noticed Gator and Feraligatr on the other side of the room, standing next to the door and broken windows. It sensed a fight approaching quickly.

“I’ll teach you a lesson for disobeying me, kid,” said Gator, “Feraligatr, start things off with Water Gun!” Feraligatr opened its mouth and a burst of water was sent straight to Ralts.

Ralts was hit, and it fell back onto Eric, who fell onto his back. He quickly picked Ralts off of his stomach and onto the ground in front of him, and then jumped to his feet. He hadn’t expected that attack, and he hadn’t known what to do. “Okay Ralts, use… what was that attack…” Feraligatr suddenly let out another Water Gun, but suddenly Eric said, “Oh, yeah! Confusion, now!”

Ralts glowed purple and manipulated Feraligatr’s mind so it could control the water that was going towards it. It made it go up a little, but it couldn’t move it far up enough to turn back around at Feraligatr, like it was trying to do, so instead, it hit Eric smack dab in the face.

Eric wiped the water off of his face and said, “Ralts! What was that for?!” Ralts looked back and shrugged, and then Eric said, “You didn’t do it on purpose? But…” Eric wondered about what just happened. If Ralts was trying to make the water go somewhere else, then why couldn’t it? Had it lost power? If so, then why?

“Feraligatr, use Slash!” commanded Gator. Feraligatr began charging at Ralts, which stood frightened.

“Ralts, try Confusion again!” said Eric. He had to know if the last mistake was really just that: a mistake. So he watched as Ralts summoned up its psychic power again, its purple silhouette returning. Just as Feraligatr was very close, Eric yelled, “Now!”

Ralts stuck its hands in front of it and got Feraligatr floating in the air. Then, it pointed back towards Gator, who stepped back in fear. Ralts was about to send Feraligatr flying at Gator, but instead, it just had Feraligatr float a few feet and suddenly fall to the ground. Then, the ground under Feraligatr cracked a bit, so it ran back to Gator before a large hole was made.

Eric frowned. Ralts did it again, it bungled up its attack. But why? It didn’t seem to have enough psychic power to back up its attacks very well. What could the explanation be for something like having less psychic power than it did in the previous battles… Suddenly, Eric got it. It had to be Doppelganger.

“I can’t use Ralts, a psychic Pokémon, to it’s full potential…” said Eric to himself, “without being psychic myself… without Doppelganger!”

Suddenly, a voice from outside said, “No, Eric!” Gator looked behind himself and saw Pidgey fly in. Apparently, it had flown out of the building unnoticed, and now it was back. All of a sudden, the door broke open onto Gator, who fell under its pressure. Estora and Rocky came running in, stepping on the door along the way. They were fully dressed, unlike Eric. They ran over to him, and Pidgey retook its perched position on the chandelier.

“We were outside waiting for about thirty seconds,” said Estora, “I saw the last attack, where Ralts couldn’t send Feraligatr back at its trainer. And you’re partly wrong about what you said.”

Eric had a blank face. “What do you mean?” he asked.

“You don’t need Doppelganger to use Ralts to its full potential,” said Estora, “You’re already using it to its full potential. Your Ralts hasn’t gotten much battle experience in its life, remember me saying that? So of course it would have trouble with the couple attacks it has. What you need Doppelganger for is to use Ralts at a level beyond its natural potential!”

Eric listened carefully. So Ralts was naturally this way? It was a beginner in battles, just like he himself was. That was unfortunate, but at least Eric now knew that there wasn’t just something wrong with his battling skills.

“Don’t space out on me, I’m not done!” yelled Estora, as she slapped Eric behind his head. “There’s one more thing. Since Doppelganger is supposed to be the great psychic Pokémon Master Siksensus reborn, you become full of psychic energy when the Core transforms you into Doppelganger. And Ralts-”

Suddenly, Estora stopped when Rocky gave out a large yawn. After she stared at him for a couple seconds, he said, “Sorry, it’s like 4:00. I’m tired, so sue me.” He was evidently quite bored, too.

Estora continued, “And Ralts are psychic Pokémon that can sense the feelings of people, including their trainers. And when you’re at such a high psychic level, as Doppelganger, Ralts can relate to you more. And somehow, the psychic power gushing from you and the Mirror Core makes Ralts more powerful, especially when concerning psychic attacks.”

Rocky yawned again, also managing to say during the yawn, “Boring!”

“Boring?!” asked Estora, getting very annoyed at Rocky’s rudeness.

“Boring?” said Rocky, “Hey, don’t put words in my mouth! I said ‘snoring’… As in, ‘I wish I could be snoring in my bed right now’…”

Eric looked back at Estora and said, “Did you already know all this?”

Estora smiled and said, “Well, some of it I knew, and some of it I just figured out right now.” Estora gave Rocky a mean look after catching him yawning again. Then, she handed Eric the Mirror Core necklace.

Eric put it on, feeling the emptiness dying away. “Thanks, Esty,” said Eric, as he watched Feraligatr pull the broken door off of its trainer. It kneeled it next to the doorway, and then got ready to finish the battle.

Gator, who was now hunching down in his pain in a villainous way, almost whispered, “You kids are getting on my last nerve. I’m not holding back anymore!”

“Bring it on!” said Rocky as he stepped forward, a Pokéball in hand. Eric put his arm in front of him, though, and Rocky looked to his right at Eric. “What?”

“No need to double team the guy,” said Eric, with a smile, “No, not when I can handle this on my own… or rather, on his own!” Eric grasped the Mirror Core part of his necklace, and the colors inside it began to move faster and fill the sphere.

“Oh, boy,” said Gator, as he pulled his back straight. He watched as purple, psychic energy encompassed Eric, and he transformed. His eyes became bright purple, and his hair stood up even more noticeably since he wasn’t wearing his beanie.

“Dragging me all the way out here was your last mistake,” said Doppelganger, frowning deeply at his enemy across the room, “Get that big lug of an alligator ready to accept defeat!”

Gator pointed at Ralts and said, “Use Slash!” Feraligatr began to charge at Ralts again, its claws pulled back for the attack. As it approached, Ralts took position.

Suddenly, Doppelganger raised his arm in the air and commanded, “Use the other attack, Growl!!” Ralts took a deep breath and held it for a second. When Feraligatr got close, Ralts jumped out of the way to the left, and Feraligatr missed, almost slashing Doppelganger-although he didn’t flinch as the wind blown from Feraligatr’s swipe blasted through his pajamas.

Gator gritted his teeth in anger and said, “What would an amateur boy like you know?! Oh, you’re going to pay for that one! Feraligatr, finish it off with Hydro Pump!!” Feraligatr took a deep breath and filled its mouth with water for its attack. Ralts took a step back, and Doppelganger just watched.

Within a matter of seconds, Feraligatr had its high-pressure stream of water blasted towards Ralts…

I have to say - I was glad to learn that Rocky's name was not actually "Rocky" by birth...By the way, favorite part was definitely him yawning and going "boring" while Estora was explaning things... XD

Moments:

He got the point across to the boy that he meant business when he stomped his foot on the ground after his last yell.

A second after the stomp, the ground under Gator collapsed. Feraligatr luckily grabbed him just in time, so he was saved.

Ralts glowed purple and manipulated Feraligatr’s mind so it could control the water that was going towards it. It made it go up a little, but it couldn’t move it far up enough to turn back around at Feraligatr, like it was trying to do, so instead, it hit Eric smack dab in the face.

XDDDDDDD Ah, that reminds me of my favorite kind of clips on AFV: People getting a surprise blast in the face by hoses/fountains. XP

Suddenly, Estora stopped when Rocky gave out a large yawn. After she stared at him for a couple seconds, he said, “Sorry, it’s like 4:00. I’m tired, so sue me.” He was evidently quite bored, too.